


Persona 4.5

by goodfairyofny



Category: Persona 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2018-11-19 19:01:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 23
Words: 31,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11319660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodfairyofny/pseuds/goodfairyofny
Summary: Nanako Dojima runs into Miusagi Mochizuki, the boy her friend Kanji used to make stuffed animals for, on her way home from a track meet. The two witness a man being thrown into the back of van next to a television and disappearing. Nanako finds herself leading a new Investigation Team with Teddie at her side. Appearances by the Persona 4 cast. All of the kids on Nanako's team are based on other children mentioned in Persona 4. Cross Posted at FanFiction.net.





	1. Chapter 1

Nanako Dojima took a deep breath. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She positioned herself on the starting block, closed her eyes for a quick wish, then focused on the lane ahead. When the gun went off, she was gone, leaving the others behind. She had been training for this for years, and today was the day. Today, Nanako would win the 100 m race. After what felt like forever, but was really only a handful of seconds, she sensed someone coming up on the right. This was not acceptable. No one would outdo her today. Nanako thought briefly of impossible things, and decided this was not going to be one of them. Just before the final bend, she accelerated to a speed she had never felt before. It felt like flying. She smiled happily as she crossed the finish line, way in front of the other runners. It was official. Nanako Dojima was the fastest runner at Yasogami High.

At the end of the race, she allowed herself to hear the cheers coming from the stands. She could hear her dad and her cousin Souji cheering loudly. And nearly drowning them out was a voice she would know anywhere. She looked their way and her heart swelled. Jumping up and down, nearly knocking out both Souji and her dad was Teddie. “Way to go, Nana-chan!” he exclaimed loudly. He had started out as one of Souji’s friends, but he and Nanako always had a special bond. He was one of her best friends. And he had barely aged a day since they first met. Nanako smiled, jumping up and down waving back at her family for a moment. Then she headed to the locker room to change. The others would meet her at home later to celebrate. 

Nanako took her time in the shower, working out her tight muscles under the hot water. By the time she shut the water off and got changed, most of the other runners had gone home. It didn’t bother her one bit. She looked around the locker room with a wistful smile before turning off the light and heading out. She had really done it. If her legs didn’t ache so much, it might not even feel real. She headed across the grounds, crossing Yasogami’s track again on her way out. She started to head home through the flood plains, walking in a dream state as she floated on the happiness she was feeling from the race. She didn’t realize she wasn’t alone until someone called out to her.

“Hey, you’re Nanako, right? Nanako Dojima. The fastest runner at Yaso High,” the boy said, not betraying any emotion. Nanako stopped and tilted her head. 

“That’s right,” she answered.

He broke out into a huge grin. “You were super awesome out there! It was really great!”

“Oh, umm, thank you,” she said. Nanako was starting to feel pretty shy, but decided to let the day’s confidence continue. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I know I’ve seen you around, but I can’t remember your name.”

“It’s Miusagi. And you have. Seen me around. At the textile shop, mostly.”

“Oh, that’s right!” she exclaimed, smiling brightly. “You’re Kanji’s friend! The one he used to make cute stuffed animals for!”

“R-Right… that’s me,” Miusagi said with a blush. “Umm, anyway,” he recovered quickly, “You’re also my senpai at Yaso. I see you at school sometimes. I mean, besides at the track meets.”

“Well, you should come and say hello next time,” she said. She smiled again and he returned it. “Do you want to walk with me? I usually cut through the shopping district to get home.”

“Oh. Sure,” he said. They began walking in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable. After a few minutes, Miusagi decided to break it. “Nanako-senpai,” he began. “Do you know that Teddie guy very well? The one that’s friends with Kanji and your cousin?”

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Yes, I _love_ Teddie!” She thought about her words and blushed just slightly. “What I mean is, he’s one of my best friends!”

“Oh, alright,” Miusagi said softly. “He’s… quite interesting… I mean..”

Nanako giggled. “Yes. I know _exactly_ what you mean.”

When they made it to the shopping district, it was pretty deserted. That tended to happen around this time of day. Most people went home for dinner, causing a lull for most of the businesses, other than the restaurants. This is why the raised voices got their undivided attention.

“P-Please, no,” said a man. “I-I don’t want to go back there ever again! Things are different now. I’m needed here, I -” His shouts were cut off as the other man picked him up and threw him towards a TV screen in the back of a truck. The first man disappeared as if he went right through the screen. The other man shut the back of the truck, hopped into the front and quickly drove off. Nanako turned to Miusagi.

“That was -” she began.

“Mayor Namatame!” he finished. “Wasn’t it?”

Nanako frowned. “I think so. It looked like him, and it sounded like his voice when he speaks on television.”

“What did we even just see? That guy threw him… at a TV… and he disappeared?”

Nanako nodded. “I have to go home now. But I think that we should talk about this. Can we meet tomorrow?”

Miusagi nodded. “Where?” he asked.

“I’ll be in front of the textile shop at noon,” she said. He nodded, and they went their separate ways.

______________________________________________________________

Nanako spent the rest of her walk completely lost in thought. She had nearly forgotten about the race and what would be waiting for her at home. She slid the door open and absentmindedly announced,”I’m home.”

“Welcome home, Nana-chan!” Teddie shouted, running at her with so much force that he nearly knocked her to the floor when he threw his arms around her.

“Hey, Nanako!” Souji said with a smile. “Congratulations! I know you worked hard for today.”

“We’re so proud of you, Nanako!” said Dojima.

She was a little bit stunned, having forgotten that they would be waiting. She thanked them, and hugged Teddie back, letting herself be absorbed into the celebration. Later she could think about what had happened on the way home. Until then, she was going to enjoy this joyous moment with her family.


	2. Chapter 2

Miusagi couldn’t believe his luck. After meeting up with Nanako Dojima in front of the textile shop, she insisted that they go to the police station and report what they had seen yesterday. Her dad was the chief of police in Inaba. And he was a pretty intimidating guy. But talking to him wouldn’t be the worst part of Miusagi’s day.

“Come on,” Nanako said, dragging him in by his arm. “We need to talk to my dad before he goes to lunch.” She pulled him past the front desk, where the officer on duty flashed her a smile, and all the way down the hall to Chief Dojima’s office. Nanako knocked firmly.

“Come in,” Dojima invited. Nanako opened the door and dragged Miusagi through it. 

“Hi, Dad!” she said. Dojima looked up from his paperwork.

“Nanako! What brings you here?”

“This is Miusagi. We walked back from the track meet together yesterday, and we saw something in the shopping district. We’re here to… make a report.”

Dojima looked from one of them to the other. “Alright, tell the front desk, they’ll see who’s available to -”

“No, Dad,” Nanako interrupted. “It’s not that kind of report. It’s _serious_.” She held his gaze long enough to make him understand what she was saying. After a moment, Dojima nodded. 

“Follow me,” he said, getting up from his desk and leading them half way back down the hall. “Tatsumi!” he shouted. _Oh, crap!_ Miusagi thought. “These kids need to make a statement! About something _serious_ ,” he said.

If Miusagi was afraid of any of the cops in this town, this would be the one. Tatsumi gave him nightmares. It didn’t really make logical sense, but this particular detective scared the crap out of him. Nanako pulled him into the room.

“Nanako-chan!” Detective Tatsumi said with a smile. “And… Miusagi-kun?”

“Hi, Naoto!” Nanako said brightly. “We, umm, saw something you should know about.”

“Sit,” Naoto said, gesturing towards two chairs. Nanako gracefully fell into hers. Miusagi lowered himself hesitantly. Detective Naoto Tatsumi was the scariest cop on the Inaba police force, and happened to be married to his friend Kanji who ran the textile shop. She was so… _serious_ all the time. He supposed this probably made her the right person to talk to, but he still wasn’t really comfortable around her after the ten years he had been hanging around the shop. “So. What is it that I can help you with?” Naoto asked.

Nanako looked at Miusagi and he nodded, indicating that she should do the talking. “Yesterday, I was walking home from the track meet, and I ran into Miusagi-kun. We were walking home through the shopping district and we saw something that didn’t make any sense. Mayor Namatame was arguing with another person. And then the person - a man, I think - threw the mayor into the back of a big truck that had a huge TV in it. And the part that was really weird is that the mayor seemed to just vanish when he was thrown in the truck. And then the man closed the back and drove off.” 

Naoto looked… rattled, at least for her. She hardly ever looked rattled, at least in front of Miusagi. She turned her gaze onto him and he tried not to cower in his seat. “Do you agree that the suspect was male, Miu-kun?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, it definitely looked like a guy. And he was able to lift Namatame with ease.” Naoto was looking at him curiously. “How could he have just disappeared in the truck?” he asked her.

“It’s… complicated. And something that some of us have dealt with in the past. You may want to talk to your cousin about what you saw, Nanako-chan.”

“Souji? Why? What is it that’s so complicated?” she asked. Naoto shook her head.

“For now let’s leave it at that. I’ll be in touch with both of you if I have more questions.” She walked the two of them out to the lobby. Nanako gave her a hug when they said goodbye. When they were outside, she laughed at Miusagi.

“What?” he asked with a frown.

“Your face when I hugged her,” she said, still giggling.

“I take it you know her well,” he said. 

Nanako nodded. “That’s right. Seems like you do, too. Why are you so afraid of her?” 

Miusagi shuddered. “I don’t know how to put it into words, but she completely terrifies me. She takes her job so seriously, and well, everything else, too.” 

Nanako tilted her head, thinking it through. “Not everything,” she said. “But, yeah… mostly. She’s super nice, though!” 

Miusagi shrugged. “So are you going to ask your cousin about… whatever it was she was trying to say?” he asked.

“Yes. I think I should. If you give me your number, I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Oh, yeah… cool,” he said. They exchanged numbers and headed in separate directions. “See you later, senpai!” he yelled over his shoulder with a grin. Nanako raised an eyebrow at him and waved before setting off towards home. Miusagi headed back to the textile shop, as he’d promised to work a few hours that afternoon.

______________________________________________________________

“Hey, mister!” he called as he pushed the door open.

“Sup, Miusagi.” Kanji Shirogane was completely absorbed in putting the finishing touches on the cutest sunflower yellow bunny Miusagi had ever seen. He walked up and peered over his shoulder, trying to get a better look at all the details.

“I had no idea that rabbits liked bowling,” he said, noting the accessories. 

Kanji shrugged. “It was a commission. Kid likes bowling, I guess. You still up for closing the shop for me tonight?”

“Yeah, sure,” Miusagi answered, putting on his apron. “What are you going to do?”

“Taking my lovely lady out to the movies,” Kanji replied with a smile. “I’m thinking about tricking her into seeing a scary one so she’ll snuggle into my arm the whole time.” 

Miusagi rolled his eyes. “Old people are _so_ weird,” he said, then flashed Kanji a smile.

“Whatever,” he said. “I hear you’ve been hanging out with Nanako-chan, by the way.” 

Miusagi glared at him. “News sure travels fast around here,” he muttered. “I take it you know everything already?” Kanji’s expression was… complicated. _Wait, does that mean…_ “You know about it, don’t you. Whatever Naoto was hinting at.” 

Kanji looked away. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. It’s… not something you need to get mixed up in, alright? You should probably just let it go.” Miusagi just looked at him for a moment, trying to read what was underneath Kanji’s expression.

“Right,” he said. “I’m sure that’s what you did.”

“Hey!” Kanji shouted. “You’re not… me,” he said softly. “It’s different, alright?”

“Yeah, alright,” Miu answered, not meeting his eyes. Kanji always wanted him to be better than he was. What he never seemed to understand is that he was one of the only people Miusagi looked up to back then. Being “better” was a pretty high standard in his opinion. Before he could say anything else, Naoto came in the door, and Kanji’s attention was completely gone.

“Naoto!” Kanji exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her deeply. _Ugh. Yeah, old people are weird. And kind of gross_ , Miusagi thought. Naoto seemed just as into it as Kanji was, until she realized they weren’t alone. She turned bright red and got completely flustered. She nodded at Miusagi, then turned away.

“A-Are you ready to go?” she asked Kanji. He smiled at her warmly.

“Yeah. Unless you think we should put it off,” he added with a frown. Miusagi thought he looked more troubled than disappointed. Whatever this stuff that happened in the past was, it was a big deal. Naoto shook her head.

“We should go. I’ve set up a… meeting with the others tomorrow afternoon.” 

Kanji nodded. “Let’s get going, then,” he said. “See you tomorrow, Miusagi.” 

“Yeah. Have a good time,” Miu said, trying not to frown.


	3. Chapter 3

When Nanako got home from the police station, Souji wasn’t home. She sighed with disappointment when she found his note on the kitchen counter.

 

_Staying at Rise’s tonight. Fridge is full. See you tomorrow._

 

It sort of figured that the one time Nanako really needed to talk to him, he decided to have a sleepover with his girlfriend. Souji and Rise had been on again off again for years. They always tried to hide it from everyone when things were on. Rise had just officially retired from being an idol and moved back to Inaba. Everyone had been surprised when she rented her own apartment instead of moving back in with her grandma above the tofu shop. Except Nanako. Nanako thought it was pretty obvious that if Rise moved home right after Souji moved home, they were together. And since Souji was staying with the Dojimas to save money (tending bar at Shiroku was barely covering his tuition), it made sense that they would need somewhere to be alone sometimes. Nanako loved Rise, but still, _eww_.

She was watching her plate of leftovers revolve over and over again in the microwave when she got a text from one of her favorite people in the world. Nanako smiled when she saw his name.

 

_Hey, Nana-chan! What are you doing?! I’m on a break from my shift at Junes! Inquiring minds want to know what the most bearutiful girl in Inaba is doing right at this moment! Luv <3, Prince Teddie._

_It’s you that’s “bearutiful”, isn’t it? I’m heating up leftovers. Very exciting._

_“Oh! That’s right. You’re BEAUTIFUL! What kind of leftovers?_

_Okonomiyaki. No one else is home and it’s super boring. Wish you weren’t working._

_Me too! We could eat together! Hey, I know! I’m free tomorrow morning! Want to go out to breakfast with me?! Prince Teddie is paying!_

_I’d love to. Junes at 7?_

_Bearriffic! Uh oh, I gotta get back to work! See you soon, Nana-chan! <3_

 

Nanako smiled. Talking to Teddie always made her feel better. She was sure she would see things in a different light after a good night’s sleep and breakfast with her favorite bear. After she ate her dinner, she settled in to watch some anime in her room. She drifted off to sleep before making it through a single episode.

 

______________________________________________________________

In the morning, she met Teddie at the food court for breakfast. Nanako ordered omelette rice, while Teddie had natto with steamed rice. It was the most normal thing Nanako had ever seen him eat. “Do you want coffee, Nana-chan?” Teddie asked.

“Oh, yes, please, Teddie. With milk and sugar.” Teddie returned a few moments later with a coffee and a strawberry milkshake. Nanako smiled at him. _Now that’s more like it_ , she thought.

“What did you do yesterday?” Teddie asked. “Before the leftovers, I mean.”

“Oh, umm… I actually had kind of a weird day,” she said. “You can keep a secret, right Teddie?” Teddie raised an eyebrow at her. “O-Of course you can, what on earth am I thinking?” She scooted her chair closer to his so they could talk quietly enough to not be overheard.

“Let me get this straight,” Teddie said. “You and this Miu-kun saw Namatame get thrown in a TV and then you went and told Nao-chan?” Nanako blinked. _What?_

“Well, we saw him get thrown in a truck, next to a TV. And he vanished.”

Teddie nodded. “I think that there’s something I should show you,” he said. They cleaned up their table and Teddie led her inside Junes, to the electronics department. They approached one of the big screen TV’s, and Teddie looked over his shoulder to make sure they were alone. “This is going to sound weird,” he said. “Touch the screen with your finger.” Nanako did as he asked. When her finger went through, she gasped. “It’s as I thought,” Teddie said. “Quick, someone’s coming! We’ve gotta jump!” Teddie grabbed Nanako’s hand and pulled her with him, inside the TV. When they landed, Nanako shook her head.

“ _What_ just happened?!” she asked.

“Umm, well, Teddie has a secret, too, Nana-chan. A really, _really_ big one.”

“You think?” she said sarcastically.

Teddie nodded, eyes wide. “I’ve wanted to tell you about this forever, but sensei said that we shouldn’t. I didn’t like that, but I always listen to sensei.”

“Teddie?” Nanako asked. “How is this even possible? We’re… _inside_ the TV?”

“You betcha! The TV world is where Teddie comes from!” Nanako was looking really confused. “It’s… a long story,” he said sadly.

“I… I remember it,” Nanako said quietly.

“You _do_?!” Teddie exclaimed. “Oh, no! We thought you wouldn’t. I’m… sorry, Nana-chan.”

Nanako put her hand on Teddie’s arm. “It’s fine. I don’t remember much. Just being here, and being scared. I don’t remember anything else.”

Teddie nodded. “Still sorry.” He kept looking at his feet. “This is why Teddie is a bear, Nana-chan!” he shouted, brightening up. “When sensei and Yosuke first found me here, I was in my bearsuit! And there was nothing inside me,” he said sadly. “But then, I grew a body! And I came into the human world to be with everyone!” Back to smiling, Teddie was excitedly telling Nanako his story. She felt like her head was spinning. She was still stuck on “grew a body” while he continued to catch her up on all kinds of things. “And Chie-chan helped me shop for clothes, and I wanted to score with Yuki-chan - Oh, not anymore, just back then - and Kanji-chan wanted to pet my fur, but then he was in love with Nao-chan, and Rise-chan let us play a song on stage with her, and Yosuke let me sleep in his closet…”

“Teddie?”

“Yes, Nana-chan?”

“I think that’s a little too much for right now. I need some time to absorb this.”

“Oh, right. Wait, I forgot to tell you all about our personas! Sensei, and the others, and even me - we had to accept our shadows - that’s like the other side of ourselves that we don’t like - and then when we did we got personas that we use to fight the bad shadows!”

Nanako frowned. This was a pretty big secret. How had they kept it for all these years? “How do you do that? Accept your shadow?” Nanako asked.

Teddie looked thoughtful for a moment. “Now that I think about it, sensei didn’t have to accept his. It was like he didn’t have one. And you and sensei are family, and when you were here before - sorry, Nana-chan - you didn’t have one either.” Teddie took a deep breath when he finally stopped.

“I’m not sure I follow,” Nanako said carefully. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but it seemed important for her to understand this.

“Back then I thought you were just too young to have a shadow. But now I think maybe it’s because you’re like sensei!”

Now it was Nanako that was thoughtful. “So you think maybe I already have this persona thing?” she asked.

Teddie, who had been frowning, broke into a big smile. “Yes! I think that you do!”

“So how did Souji find out about his?”

“It was when Yosuke had to face his shadow. Sensei just summoned his like he’d always had it, even though he’d never done it before,” Teddie replied.

“Ok,” Nanako said, letting out a breath. “So how do you summon it?”

“Oh!” Teddie exclaimed. It’s _beary_ easy! I just close my eyes and concentrate, it feels like that ‘meditayshun’ thingie, and then I just open my hand and my card comes up. And then Kamui pops out behind me!” Nanako just stared at him for a moment, wondering which question to ask next. “Here, I do it just like this!” Teddie added, closing his eyes and taking a breath. A blue card flickered into his hand, and suddenly there was a huge, round creature behind him. It looked a lot like… well, Teddie. Teddie’s bear suit, but with a superhero cape. “See?” Teddie asked excitedly, looking over his shoulder. “That’s Kamui! He used to be Kintoki-Douji before he evolved.”

“O-Oh,” Nanako said. Every answer she got from Teddie led to a new question or twelve. “Umm, hello, Kamui.”

“He says hello back! Oh, now you try, Nana-chan! Let’s see if you can already summon your persona!” Nanako swallowed. This seemed like it was going to be hard, and Teddie looked so eager that she hated to disappoint him. What if she didn’t really even have one of these things? She closed her eyes and breathed in a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. After about five breaths, she opened her eyes as she felt something skim across the palm of her hand. A blue card appeared, and when she turned, there was a beautiful goddess standing behind her. Teddie started to speak.

“She’s -”

“Amenouzume,” Nanako finished.

“Right!” Teddie said with a happy smile. “The goddess of dawn. Let me see if I can scan her.” Nanako stared in awe at her persona while Teddie concentrated for a moment. “I think that her strongest thing is going to be dark magic. But she probably has some other abilities, too. Oh, Nana-chan! She’s so pretty! Almost as pretty as you!” Teddie gushed openly. Nanako smiled. If anyone else had been here she’d have probably blushed. But it was just her and Teddie, and she knew that Teddie never held back his feelings around her. It felt nice knowing for sure what he thought of her, although she didn’t always know what to do with that kind of information.

“So… what happens now?” Nanako asked quietly.

“That’s the part I’m not too sure about,” Teddie answered honestly. ‘When sensei and the others got their personas, someone was killing people by throwing them in the TV. I don’t know what’s going on this time, or why it would have to do with you. Why didn’t the blue room lady just ask sensei to help again?”

“Who’s that?” Nanako asked.

“Umm… I only met her a couple of times. I think sensei could give you a better answer since he spent lots of time with her.”

“Okay,” Nanako said. “Do you think we should go back now?” She was going to have to hunt down her cousin and get some answers. And she figured this was something Miusagi should know about. They saw what happened to Namatame together, so did that mean he had these weird powers, too?

“Yes,” Teddie said. “But - wait! Nana-chan,” he said, looking at the ground sadly. “You - You still like me now that you know, right?”

“Know what?” Nanako asked curiously. She had no idea what he was worrying about.

“About Teddie! About how Teddie isn’t, well… human.”

Nanako took his hands and made him look at her before she spoke. “I’ve always known that there was something different about you, Teddie. Those things are part of the reasons why I like you so much. You’re my favorite person in the whole world,” she said. She blushed slightly and turned her head to the side when he started to sparkle at her. The sparkling could get overwhelming at times. She didn’t fail to notice that he seemed to only do it to her, these days.

“Oh, Nana-chan!” Teddie exclaimed, throwing his arms around her in a tight hug. “You make this bear so happy!”

“Beary,” she mumbled from inside his embrace.

“What’s that, Nana-chan?” Teddie asked.

“I make you _beary_ happy,” she said seriously. Teddie looked at her and they both started laughing.

“You are absolutely correct! Now, we should get out of here before it gets busy in the electronics department,” Teddie said, grabbing her hand and heading for the stack of exit TV’s. When they were back in Junes, Teddie handed her a pair of pink glasses. “I, umm, made these for you,” he said.

“What are these? Made them when?” Nanako asked.

“Oh! They’re glasses to wear in the TV. It makes it easy to see through the fog. And I just made them, right before we came back out.”

Nanako raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t see you make anything,” she pointed out.

“It’s just a Teddie thing, Nana-chan!” he said defensively. “Just make sure you always wear them in there, ok?”

“Thank you, Teddie,” she said, standing on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. It was crazy that he was already this much taller than her. Teddie’s height hadn’t changed the whole time Nanako had known him, until her recent birthday when he claimed he’d wished to be 16 too, so he wouldn’t get left behind. That weird little fact was starting to make a little more sense now. It had only been a few months, and he easily had 4 inches on her. “I have to go now, I’ll see you later?”

Teddie pressed his hand to his cheek. “Yeah, absolutely! See you soon, Nana-chan!” She laughed as she walked away, watching him jump up and down and wave with one hand while still holding his cheek with the other. _That boy is just too adorbearble_ , Nanako thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Nanako waited patiently at home for her cousin, who she had sent a text to an hour ago. He promised to meet her at the house. It was taking him an annoyingly long time to come home, which she figured she had Rise to thank for. She flipped on the TV and watched the quiz show while she waited. She used to watch it all the time when she was a kid, and well, spent a lot of time waiting for her dad or her cousin to come home and spend time with her. Finally, she heard the front door.

“Welcome home, Souji!” Nanako said warmly.

“Hey, Nanako. So what’s going on? You said you needed to talk about something?” Souji asked curiously.

“I… saw something strange. And when I reported it, Naoto said I should probably ask you about it. And when I told Teddie this morning, umm… He sort of took me inside the TV? And it turns out this persona thing runs in the family.” Souji’s eyebrows shot up so high that they nearly flew off the top of his head. Nanako took a deep breath and started again at the beginning, telling him everything that had happened.

“Have you… been to the Velvet Room yet?” Souji asked.

“No. Is that the blue place Teddie mentioned? He didn’t really know what it was so it was hard to get an explanation.”

“It is. I think that it would be best to wait and see what happens before I tell you too much about it. In the meantime, I’m meeting with the team this afternoon. You should just let us handle all of this, ok, Nanako?”

“Team?” she asked.

“Oh, umm, yeah. Just you know, the old gang. My friends. I guess I’ll explain more about that later, too.”

“Shouldn’t I come with you? Since I have one of these persona things, doesn’t that make me involved already?”

“It.. would be best if you didn’t. It’s my job to keep you safe,” he said, not meeting her eyes. 

“Is this about what happened when I was little? When I was in the TV before?”

“Y-You… remember that?” Souji asked quietly.

“I don’t know what happened there, but I remembered being there before when Teddie took me in. It doesn’t even matter. I’m not a little kid anymore, Souji! I can help.”

“Of course it matters. Look,” he said, “let me meet with the others this afternoon, catch them up on what’s happening. I’ll fill you in tonight, and we can go from there.”

Nanako sighed. “Fine,” she grumbled. She was really sick of being treated like a kid.

After Souji left to meet the others at Junes, Nanako realized something. If the old gang was all meeting there, then Kanji wouldn’t be at the textile shop. And if Kanji wasn’t there, Miusagi would be. She grabbed her coat and hurried off towards the shopping district. As she expected, Miusagi was working. He was finishing up with a customer when Nanako walked in, so she just waved and headed over to the plushie section to see what new things Kanji had made since she last visited. She was smiling at a lavender kitty wearing a bowtie, monocle and top hat when Miusagi walked up to her.

“Hey,” he said with a grin. “That one’s kind of an interesting choice, huh?”

Nanako frowned. “He’s a very dignified cat, I’ll have you know,” she replied. Then she laughed. “Sorry, your face. It’s pretty cute, although I’m not sure where he gets his ideas sometimes.”

Miusagi shrugged. “So what’s going on? Just out shopping for stuffed animals?”

“I came to see you, actually,” Nanako answered, placing the cat back on the shelf. “You know that they’re having a meeting as we speak, right? Kanji and Naoto and the rest of them? About what we saw?”

This time it was Miusagi who frowned. “Yes. I gathered as much.”

“Something else happened to me yesterday when I was on a breakfast date with Teddie,” she started.

Miusagi’s eyebrow shot up. “Date? With… Teddie?” he asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. We spend time together often, it’s something we’ve been doing since I was a child,” she said distractedly.

“Oh?” Miusagi asked curiously.

Nanako just nodded in reply. “Anyway, I thought you should know about it. But it’s all going to sound pretty crazy. And if Souji is telling the truth, getting involved in it is pretty dangerous.”

“That’s sort of the impression I got from Kanji, too. That whatever’s up, I ‘shouldn’t get involved’ in it,” he replied.

“So, I guess I’m going to leave it up to you,” Nanako said. “Whether you want to get involved or not.”

Miusagi laughed. “I already am, aren’t I? I mean, we saw what we saw. No matter how hard I try, I can’t unsee it.”

Nanako nodded again. “Ok, but you asked for it,” she said, launching into the long story of her morning with Teddie (minus the kiss on the cheek part) and her conversation with Souji. When she was done, Miusagi shook his head. 

“I’m… going to sit down for a minute,” he said, looking dazed. The two of them sat and spent a few minutes in silence. 

“It’s… a lot to take in,” Nanako said slowly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you.”

“No,” Miusagi replied. “No, I needed to know. So how do I get one of these persona things?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I didn’t have to do much of anything, but Teddie thinks that’s because I’m related to Souji, and he didn’t either. Our… powers are different than the others. He said that everyone else had to accept their shadow? I haven’t really figured out what that means yet.”

“Ha!” Miusagi laughed. “I guess we’re going to go figure it out, then. Do you think that Teddie will help us?”

“Teddie will help us,” Nanako said, turning away.

“What, like if we ask nicely or something?”

“If I ask,” she answered, still looking away.

“Hmm. I see,” Miusagi said quietly. Then he grinned. “Then I guess you’d better get ready to bat your eyelashes while I finish this shift!” he said brightly, getting up. 

Nanako rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she mumbled. “I’ll text you later with a time,” she said, stomping back out into the shopping district. _Like I would even have to_ , she thought. _It might be fun, though._ Nanako smiled and headed home to prepare.


	5. Chapter 5

After watching a slice of lasagna revolve around in the microwave for yet another boring dinner alone, Nanako decided it was time to send her favorite bear a text. 

 

_Hey, Teddie. Are you doing anything tonight?_

_Nana-chan! No! I’m not working. Wait, why? Is something the matter?_

_Silly bear. I just want to see you._

_Oh, Nana-chan! I want to see you, too! My heart is thumpa-thumping at just the thought of it!_

_Do you want to meet me by the river at 7? I’ll bring us a special treat to share._

_Yes! Teddie will be there! <3_

 

After she ate her dinner, Nanako packed a basket with the special chocolates she had purchased that afternoon. She opened the fridge and stared at the bottles of chilled wine dad had already forgotten he bought. She shut the fridge. She walked to the door. She walked back and opened the fridge, grabbing one of the bottles and placing it in her basket. Then she was out the front door, heading quickly towards the Samegawa riverbank.

Teddie was already waiting by the picnic table when she arrived. He stood up when she approached. Nanako blushed as he took in her outfit and gulped audibly. She had chosen her shortest black skirt, and left quite a few buttons undone on her pink blouse. The strappy high heels she had decided on at the last moment made her legs look even longer, and her skirt look even shorter. She had her hair up in a french twist, making her neck more visible than usual. Teddie seemed to be having trouble with words, but he finally spoke. “I-I, I brought a blanket,” he said quietly.

Nanako smiled. “That was a great idea! Let’s spread it out by the water.” Teddie nodded and followed her down the steps towards the riverbank. He spread the blanket out neatly in the spot Nanako picked out, then sat down when she told him to. She placed the basket beside her and pulled out the chocolates.

“Oooh! Fancy!” Teddie said excitedly. Nanako smiled again.

“I brought something else fancy, too. Figured they would go nicely together,” she said, holding up the bottle of wine. 

“Oooooohhhhh!” Teddie said. “But, wait. Aren’t we supposed to wait until we’re older to drink wine? That’s what Yosuke’s mom told me.”

Nanako stifled a giggle. Teddie was so innocent and good sometimes. “Well, I mean. Yes. But all the kids our age do this, Teddie.”

“Do what?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Drink wine and make out by the river,” she said, batting her eyelashes. _Oh god, I am so stupid_ , she thought, rolling her eyes on the inside. Teddie’s eyes widened in surprise. And then… he was wrapped around her and kissing her before she even registered that he had moved. Nanako started laughing hysterically as he knocked her down with his enthusiasm. “We haven’t even opened the wine yet,” she said through tears of laughter. 

“Oh! Right!” Teddie said, taking the wine and smiling sheepishly. He opened the wine and took a sip, passing her the bottle. Nanako took a long swig, trying to look like she’d done this before. This was not easy as it tasted pretty horrible. She grabbed a heart shaped chocolate and held it up to Teddie’s lips. As he took a bite, she spoke.

“I was wondering if you could do me a favor.” 

Teddie smiled lovingly at her. “Of course, Nana-chan. Anything.”

“Will you… take me and my friend Miusagi into the TV tomorrow? He was the one who saw Mayor Namatame get thrown into the TV with me, so I thought it would be good for him to see it. To understand what we saw.”

“Hmm. Alright, Nana-chan. I guess that would be alright.”

Nanako smiled brightly and hugged him around his neck. “Thank you, Teddie.”

“Nana-chan?” Teddie asked.

“Yes, Teddie?”

“Can we.. can we smooch again now?” 

Nanako laughed deeply, then crushed her lips to his. It turned out she was pretty good at seducing the bear. She felt bad that she had done it to get something from him. She didn’t feel bad that she didn’t want to stop kissing him. Nanako and Teddie spent a long time together by the river.


	6. Chapter 6

Nanako and Teddie held hands as they walked home from the river. When they got to her house, Teddie paused on the porch. “Did this… mean anything?” he asked awkwardly.

Nanako looked into his eyes and gave him her complete honest feelings, like she always did. “I don’t know,” she replied. 

Teddie nodded and hugged her goodbye. “Goodnight, Nana-chan,” he said, heading off towards home. Nanako felt wonderful and awful at the same time. She should have just asked. He would have said yes without the seduction. Kissing Teddie had been amazing, but she didn’t have easy answers for him. She had no idea if she was ready to be his girlfriend, if that’s even what he was thinking. She sighed, and sent a quick text to Miusagi before stepping into the house.

 

_Tomorrow, 3 pm. Meet at Junes food court._

_Great! See you then.  
_

 

When she opened the door and stepped in, Nanako was surprised to find that the house wasn’t empty as usual. Souji was home, and Rise was with him. _Great. So much for walking in unnoticed_.

“Oh, Nanako-chan!” Rise exclaimed with a smile. The smile faded quickly as she took in Nanako’s outfit and her now very messy french twist. “Were you… on a date?” she asked hesitantly.

Nanako shrugged. “Just out with Teddie,” she said, as casually as she could manage.

Souji walked up beside her and raised an eyebrow. “You smell like alcohol,” he commented.

Nanako shrugged again, while panicking on the inside. “I had a couple sips of wine. That’s all,” she said. Souji said nothing for a minute, then finally nodded. “You aren’t going to tell dad, are you?” she asked, trying to keep the climbing anxiety from her voice.

It was Souji’s turn to shrug. “No. He probably wouldn’t believe me if I told him, anyway. Was Teddie drinking, too?” he asked with a slight frown. 

“Not really. I mean, like one sip. So no.” Rise giggled. Nanako glared at her. Souji left to get something out of the kitchen.

“So… drinking wine and making out by the river, right?” Rise asked with a grin. Nanako blushed deeply. “Hey, I’m not judging. Does this mean you and Teddie are…”

Nanako let out a deep breath. “No. I don’t know. Maybe. I feel really confused about everything right now.”

Rise put her hands on Nanako’s shoulders. “Was it fun?” she asked. Nanako nodded. “Then everything will work itself out. No big deal.” She pulled Nanako into a hug. 

“Thanks, Rise,” Nanako said with relief.

“Anytime. Now go put on some pajamas, we’re going to stay up, watch movies and eat popcorn!” 

“Really? That’s what you guys are up to?” Nanako asked.

“Yep! We were just waiting for you to get home!” Rise said with a smile. Nanako went to her room and changed, letting her hair down and brushing out the tangles. Then she took a deep breath and sent a text.

 

_I had a really nice time tonight. Hope you did, too._

_The best. <3 Are you going to sleep now?_

_No. Rise and Souji want me to watch movies with them. So tired, but I guess I’m staying up._

_Like a slumber party! How fun! I’ll see you tomorrow, Nana-chan!_

_Goodnight, Teddie. Miss you._

_Miss you, too! <3_

 

Nanako smiled, then went back to the living room, sitting between Souji and Rise. Souji smiled down at her. She felt much better with them both beside her. She was glad she didn’t have to come home to an empty house tonight, even if she would have preferred to get some sleep.

______________________________________________________________

Naoto Tatsumi decided for the first time in ages to stay home and sleep in on a Monday morning. She took her work seriously, and made a conscious effort to not neglect it unless absolutely necessary. She had been feeling more worn out than usual lately, which was not normal for her either. Warm sunlight was streaming in the bedroom window, but it was not what caused her to stir. It was the sudden chill beside her as she found herself alone in the bed that woke her. She looked up in time to see Kanji, about to leave the room. “Uh, uh,” she said, trying to shake the sleep from her voice enough to speak. “We had a deal, Shirogane.”

Kanji turned and smiled. Naoto secretly liked calling him by her former last name when she thought she could get away with it. And he knew it well, despite the fact that it was a secret. “I was going to go make you some breakfast,” he said.

“No. No breakfast,” she replied, reaching her hand towards him in an effort to lure him back to her. 

Kanji raised an eyebrow at her. “You were starving yesterday morning, and the day before that,” he pointed out.

“And today I’m not,” Naoto said simply. “Come back to bed, Kanji. I didn’t take the morning off for you to wait on me while I sleep the day away.”

“I like taking care of you,” he mumbled as he climbed back under the covers.

“I know that,” she said softly, “ and what I need is for you to kiss me right now.” That was all Kanji needed to hear. While it was pretty weird for Naoto to take time off like this, he happened to be a really big fan of spending the morning with her. 

“Sure, Naoto,” he said with a smile. “Anything you want.”

______________________________________________________________

Nanako realized when she woke up Monday morning that it had been a bad decision to partake in Rise and Souji’s movie night. Getting up was much more difficult than usual. They kept her up really late, and then she had the strangest dream about a weird man with a really long nose, and a blonde lady, and everything around them was blue… _No!_ she thought, running down the hall and banging on Souji’s door. “Big Bro, I have to talk to you _right now_!” she shouted through the door frantically. The door opened, and a very tired Rise wearing pink silk pajamas with a sleep mask that looked like a panda on her head looked at her curiously.

“He’s downstairs making pancakes,” she said. 

“Thanks,” Nanako said, turning and running down the stairs.

“Wait up,” Rise whined. “I’m not awake enough yet for yelling and stairs,” she mumbled as she followed behind Nanako.

Nanako burst into the kitchen. “Souji!” she shouted, startling him as he flipped a pancake.

“Nanako? What’s the matter?” he asked. 

“I had a dream and I don’t think it was really a dream and there was a long nose man and a blonde and everything was blue!” 

Rise, who had caught up just in time to hear, frowned deeply. Souji put his hands on Nanako’s shoulders. “Did you… sign a contract?”

“I… Yes. Yes, I did,” Nanako answered. “Is that… Is it bad?”

Souji let out a long breath. “Yes and no. Yes because I was hoping it would be me instead. No because I will make sure everything is alright. I won’t let anything bad happen to you, Nanako.”

“I don’t understand. What does it mean?”

“It means that you’re the hero of this story,” Rise said gently. “But it doesn’t mean that we can’t help you.”

“The Velvet Room will be back if you signed a contract, and I still have a key,” Souji said absentmindedly. “I need to go and have a talk with them, see if anything can be done.” He looked back at Nanako, who was still wearing her pajamas. “Pancakes first, though. Then you should probably hurry. When I called the school this morning, I promised you would be there for your afternoon classes.”

“ _What_?!” Nanako shrieked. “What time is it?”

“It’s 11 am. Like I said, you should hurry,” Souji answered with a smile. Nanako ate her pancakes with record speed, then tore back up the stairs to get ready for school. Souji looked at Rise with concern in his eyes. “Maybe I shouldn’t have let her sleep in.”

Rise giggled. “A morning off every once in awhile is a good thing. I wish I had a cool family member to call me in when we were in high school.”

______________________________________________________________

Miusagi Mochizuki spent the entire morning skipping rocks by the riverbank. He normally wouldn’t have skipped school, especially since he was meeting Nanako right after. But Sana-chan said it was important, so he agreed to meet her. Sanae Komaki had been his best friend since they were little kids, and it was not at all like her to be late. And if she was going to be late, she would _not_ be several hours late. At lunch time he decided that enough was enough, and stopped by her sister’s house. It had just been Sana-chan and her older sister for years now. Luckily her sis was pretty understanding and wouldn’t get on to them for skipping class once in awhile.

Unfortunately, her sister hadn’t seen her since the night before. She had slept in later than when Sanae normally left for school. Miusagi reassured her that it was likely nothing to worry about, that he had undoubtedly misunderstood her, meaning that she was in class right now. Except that he didn’t misunderstand. He had read her text over and over all morning.

 

_Skip today? Meet u @Samegawa 8 am IMPORTANT._

 

So naturally, Miusagi had been sitting by the stupid river since 7:45. The handful of texts he had sent were not returned. This worried him. 

After grabbing some steak skewers for lunch, he decided to pop his head in at the textile shop. Seemed like a pretty slow day. Kanji was behind the counter sewing a tiny sombrero onto a plush mouse. Miusagi frowned. “I hope that was a commission.”

Kanji looked up wearily. “Yeah… hey, aren’t you supposed to be at school?”

Miusagi shrugged. “Sana-chan asked me to skip, then completely stood me up.” He couldn’t help frowning again. “Kinda worried about that, actually.”

“Hmm, yeah. That’s not like her,” Kanji replied. “Why did she want you to skip?”

“I have no idea,” Miusagi said. “She just said it was important.”

“You talked to her sister yet?” Kanji asked.

“Yeah, at noon. She slept in, hasn’t seen Sana-chan since last night.”

“Guess all you can do is wait until school gets out then, since I don’t see you hurrying your ass over there to catch last period,” Kanji commented.

“Hey now,” Miusagi said with a grin. “You’re really old, but you’re _not_ my dad.”

Kanji looked up at Miusagi’s face and blinked. “Never said I was. And I’m _not_ old!” It sort of looked like his feelings might be hurt. And not about being called old. Miusagi had been calling him “Mister” since the day they met. It was practically a term of endearment at this point. So it must have been the dad comment that got to him. 

“Sorry,” Miusagi said softly. He knew that Kanji had lost his dad at a young age. It was one of the things they had in common. And he had sort of filled that role in Miusagi’s life, even though they had never talked about it.

“It’s fine,” Kanji said, focusing on the mouse. “What are you doing now? Until Sana-chan gets out of school?”

“Nothing… I’m meeting Nanako-senpai at three. So I guess until then I’m just bugging you.”

“Nanako-chan again, huh?”

“Something wrong with that?”

“Nah,” Kanji replied. “But if you’re here to stay for awhile, you should at least do something productive. Scarf display could use reorganizing.”

Miusagi rolled his eyes. “Right. On it.”


	7. Chapter 7

“So I was thinking,” Yosuke began, rolling onto his side to watch his brand new girlfriend get dressed for work. “Maybe it’s time we like, tell the others what we’ve been doing.”

Chie Satonaka rolled her eyes as she buttoned the shirt of her police uniform. “I thought we talked about this. They’ll never leave us alone if they know we’re dating,” she snapped.

“So what?” Yosuke asked. “It’s not like it isn’t working out,” he said, “I mean, I’m sleeping in your bed. How much more settled do we need to be before we fess up?”

Chie glared at him. “Don’t get too comfortable, Hanamura,” she muttered. They had only been dating for about a month. If you ignored the fact that they had been close friends for a decade now, a month really wasn’t very long. And despite how they mercilessly teased Kanji and Naoto about having feelings for each other and taking over a year to get together, that was nine years ago. _Nine_. It had taken Chie and Yosuke _nine_ years longer than those two to get here! “You know, you’ve been sleeping here a lot. Aren’t you worried about Teddie?”

“Huh? What about him?” Yosuke asked.

“He’s all alone, you moron! He gets into trouble when he’s on his own too much! Not to mention, he gets lonely,” she said in a softer tone.

“Umm, yeah. That’s true. He’s been spending a lot of time with Nanako-chan lately, though. So he’s definitely not lonely then,” Yosuke said with a smile and a wink.

“Eww, Yosuke, don’t wink like that when you’re talking about Nanako-chan!” Chie screeched. “She’s like, everyone’s little sister!”

“Everyone’s little sister… except for Ted,” he pointed out. “I got a text from Souji this morning. Last night, Nanako-chan came home all _disheveled_ looking - that was the word he used, _disheveled_. And she told Rise that she and _Teddie_ had been drinking wine and making out by the river!” Yosuke tried really hard, but he was laughing hysterically by the time he got to the end of the story.

“See, this is what I’m talking about, Yosuke! He gets into _trouble_! Oh, poor Nanako-chan,” Chie said with a frown. Then she brightened. “Hey, wait! Rise was at Souji’s house last night? Like, late enough for Nanako-chan to be coming home from a date?!”

“And that, my lovely lady, is one of the many reasons why I’m crazy about you,” Yosuke replied with a grin. “It may take you a moment, but you miss nothing.”   
Chie sat down on the edge of the bed and gave Yosuke a serious look. “Alright, then. I guess things are ok with Teddie, and Nanako-chan must be alright if Rise and Souji are both keeping an eye on her… Right?”

“Absolutely!” Yosuke exclaimed. “I promise you I’ll check up on Ted today. And then we’re still on for tonight, right? Dinner and a movie in Okina?”

“Yes, alright. But you’re buying me steak, you got it?!” Yosuke laughed hysterically, pulling her onto the bed and kissing her deeply. If all he had to do to make sure she stayed with him was to keep providing steak forever, he was sure this would work out. Heck, he’d been supporting her steak habit for ten years already.

______________________________________________________________

To Chie’s dismay, she got to work an hour early for nothing. “Naoto, I thought we were going to do some sparring this afternoon,” Chie complained, snapping her gum and sighing.

“I know, I’m sorry, Chie-san. I just can’t seem to get over this flu.”

“Are you sure it’s the flu? You don’t have a runny nose, and you’re not sneezing or coughing.”

“I know. But I can’t seem to shake how tired I feel, and I ache all over. Half the time I am starving, and half the time I am… not.” Naoto wasn’t about to tell her partner and long time friend who loved to gossip that when she wasn’t starving for food, she was starving for Kanji. She could feel herself blushing even though she hadn’t owned up to it. “Not to mention, my stomach has been rather upset as well.”

“The stomach flu lasts a day or two. You’ve been feeling off for a few weeks now.”

“Well.. that’s true,” Naoto said, her voice faltering.

“Naoto,” Chie began softly, “I think you should consider other things that this might be. Because it really doesn’t sound like the flu.” 

Naoto frowned. “I… suppose you’re right.” 

Chie got her attention again, placing a hand on her shoulder. “And Naoto,” she said, with a bit more force than before, “I think you should consider other things. Not just being sick. It’s been going on too long to just be the flu.” Naoto’s eyes widened for just long enough that Chie felt confident she had gotten her point across. She smiled and snapped her gum again. “Sooooo, I know something that you don’t know,” Chie said playfully. 

Naoto rolled her eyes. “I am sure that you do, Chie-san.”

“It’s about Rise,” Chie added with a smile, “and Souji.” Surely that would get Naoto’s interest.

“What, that they are dating again?” Naoto asked, looking at her case files. Chie’s face fell.

“How on earth did you know?” she asked. “I thought no one knew about it!”

“Please,” Naoto said. “It is completely obvious.”

“She told you, didn’t she?!” Chie exclaimed. “I should have known, of course she would tell her best friend.”

“Best friends, if you want to be technical about it. She tells Kanji more than she tells me. But, no. She didn’t say anything. Which is precisely how I deduced that they had gotten back together.”

“Huh. I don’t know how I’m ever going to become as good a detective as you, Naoto.” 

Naoto looked up and smiled. “You will get there, Chie-san. You are nearly there already.”

Chie let out a long breath. “Thanks, Naoto.” She knew it wasn’t quite true, but it felt nice to hear it anyway. The good thing was that Chie was not a quitter. She would keep trying, and she would keep helping people, no matter what.

______________________________________________________________

When Nanako left school, she found Miusagi waiting for her at the gate. “Hey, I thought we were meeting at Junes.”

“Sorry. I, umm, can’t make it actually. I was waiting to see if Sana-chan had been in class, and it turns out she wasn’t, so I need to find her,” Miusagi said in a jumble.

“Sana-chan?” Nanako asked.

“Oh, right. You probably don’t know her. Sanae Komaki. She’s in my year. We’ve been friends since we were little, and she asked me to skip with her this morning but she never showed up. She wasn’t at home, and she also wasn’t at school.”

“Oh,” Nanako replied. “Well, how can I help?”

“Umm, it’s ok. I can just -”

“Miusagi. I’m going to help you look for her. So where do we start?”

Miusagi frowned. “The thing is, I’m not really sure.”

Nanako nodded. “Let me just text Teddie and tell him we won’t be coming today.”

 

_Hey, something’s come up. Miusagi’s friend is missing so we’re going to look for her. Can we get together later?_

_Nana-chan! I think you’d both better come! Someone’s inside the TV! I tried to get a hold of sensei and the others but none of them answered!_

_On our way! Maybe it’s Sana-chan! Be right there!_

 

Nanako grabbed Miusagi’s arm. “Come on, we have to go!” They were already running towards Junes before he got the chance to ask what was going on.

“Why are we running, did you think of somewhere to look for Sana-chan?”

“Yes, sort of. Teddie said someone is inside the TV. It might be her!” Miusagi started running faster. He could barely keep up with Nanako at his top speed. _Figures, I pick the fastest runner at Yasogami High to try and keep up with._

______________________________________________________________

Souji was feeling frustrated. Angry, even. “I don’t understand,” he said for the third time. “Why can’t it just be me instead?” He was nearly wearing a hole in the carpet of the Velvet Room from all the angry pacing he had been doing over the past hour. He refused to accept the answers he was given.

“Souji, you were a wonderful guest. One of the best ever. My favorite, to be honest,” Margaret said with a chuckle. “But it is no longer your time. Your cousin has been chosen as the next guest. It is she who will handle things from now on. You… are no longer the wild card.”

“Wait, what? What does _that_ mean?” he asked, no longer pacing.

“Izanagi is still with you as your persona. But you no longer have the ability to have others. You have.. grown up, become more settled in who you are. The power of the wild card has passed on to Nanako, so it is she who must lead the others.”

“Lead the others… so we can still help her, then. We can go with her?”

Margaret smiled sadly. “I’m afraid that you and your friends are not the others I was speaking of. She will find her own companions for this journey.”

“So, a bunch of kids, huh? And we can’t help at all?”

“I am not saying that you can’t. But I do not recommend it. The shadow boy may accompany her, but the rest of you would be better off remaining in an advisory position. Outside of the shadow world.”

“Teddie can go with her? Why?”

“He was born there. And he was meant to be one of her companions. She will find the rest on her own.”

“I still don’t like this. You know what happened to her in there. You know that it’s my job to protect her from that place! I can’t ever let anything like that happen to her again.”

“I understand how you feel, Souji. But this is how things are. She will not suffer the adverse effects she did as a child, I can assure you of that.”

“How? How can you be sure?”

“She has already been inside and summoned her first persona. And she has already signed a contract. It cannot be undone.”

Souji glared at her. “Fine. But I’m going to do everything I can to help her. And I’m not giving up my damn key to this place. I’ll be back to chat if things go too far.”

Margaret smiled. “Call ahead, I’ll provide refreshments.” Souji glared at her again as he opened the door, slamming it behind him on his way out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thanks for reading so far. The fall semester starts next week for me. I'll still be posting chapters, but my writing may slow down when things get busy. Hopefully there won't be too many delays. ;)

Nanako and Miusagi ran as fast as they could all the way to Junes. _She’s barely winded at all and I’m dying_ , Miusagi thought. They met up with Teddie in the food court, and he frantically led them to the electronics department. There were customers, so they had to wait a few minutes. Teddie pretended to try and sell a TV to them until the others finally moved on. “Hurry, grab Nana-chan’s other hand and let’s jump!” Teddie exclaimed. Nanako’s description of this hadn’t prepared Miusagi for the jolt to the stomach he felt as he landed with a thud. 

“This is… I don’t even have words for this,” he said in awe.

Nanako laughed. “That pretty much sums it up.”

“Do you really think Sana-chan is in here?” Miusagi asked Teddie.

“I can tell that someone is,” Teddie answered. “But I need to know some more about her to figure out where she is.”

Miusagi nodded. “She’s kind, and sweet. When we were little kids I borrowed her stuffed rabbit, and like an idiot, I lost it in the river. It was her favorite. That was when I met Kanji. He tried to help me look for it, and when we couldn’t find it, he made a new one that was even better. I gave it to her and apologized, and it became her new favorite. She’s… she’s my best friend. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

Teddie sniffed the air deeply. “I think… yeah, I think she’s this way.”

Nanako looked at Miusagi and shrugged, and they followed Teddie further into the TV.

______________________________________________________________

Naoto walked into the textile shop with a frown on her face. “Have you seen Miusagi-kun today?” she asked.

Kanji looked up from his knitting. “Yeah. He left here about an hour ago. Why, is something up?”

Naoto let out the breath she’d been holding. “I was trying to contact Nanako-chan to ask some follow up questions about the report they made. She doesn’t seem to be anywhere.”

“Miusagi said he was meeting up with her after school. But he was all freaked out because he couldn’t find Sana-chan anywhere.”

Naoto gulped. “I think we may have a problem. Do you think your mother can watch the shop for a bit?”

“Give me just a second,” Kanji answered. After talking to his mother for a few minutes, he came back into the shop. “Let’s go… I’ll give Ted a call on the way.”

______________________________________________________________

It was so foggy that Miusagi could barely see a thing. Teddie seemed fine, and Nanako had put on some weird pink glasses. She was leading the way. Every once in awhile they had to hide around a corner while some shapeless black blob passed by. Shadows? That was what Teddie had called them. Evidently, Teddie and Nanako could fight them, but since Miusagi couldn’t, they were just avoiding them. After awhile, they entered an area through a red and black portal. When they reached the other side, Miusagi stopped. It looked exactly like the riverbank! As hard as it was to see through the fog, Miusagi started running when he saw a small child kneeling by the river.

“H-Hey, are you alright?” he asked the boy. The boy looked up at him, tears streaming down his face. Miusagi’s face.

“I-I lost Sana-chan’s rabbit! Her favorite! She’s g-going to hate me now!”

Nanako stopped beside Miusagi, and put a hand on his arm. “He’s… you?” she asked. 

Miusagi nodded. “E-Everything will be ok. You’ll find a way to apologize, any second now K-Kanji will…”

The boy glared at him. “Kanji Tatsumi? The boy you idolized for so many years? Ha! You’re right, maybe we should just run to Kanji with all of our problems! It’s not like we can solve anything for ourselves!”

“W-What… I don’t understand… “ Miusagi felt so confused. That’s what had happened that day. He was crying, and then Kanji helped him. “He doesn’t solve all my problems, but he did help with this one.”

“And yet you still hated him half the time. For doing the things you wished dad was still here to do! For the fact that you love him _more_ than you remember loving dad!”

“Th-That… That’s not true. I don’t feel that way!”

“Of course you do! Because I am you, and you are me! And I hate him, because I rely on him for everything!”

“No, it’s… not like that… I mean…”

“You hate his scary cop wife, too! You always have!”

“No, I don’t… she’s just intimidating, I…”

“You _hate_ her, Miusagi. You hate her because she’s been a better mother to you than mom is!”

Miusagi gasped. “That… mom is fine. She’s a good mom. I don’t… no!”

Teddie grabbed Nanako’s hand. “Let him reject it, Nana-chan. He has to. Then we’ll fight it and he’ll be able to accept it.” 

“Mom has never really been there for you. But Naoto has. That’s what scares you about her! You can see yourself being a part of their little family. Mom, dad, and little Miu-kun who can’t do anything without them!”

“N-No! That’s not it! I don’t feel that way!”

“Oh, I promise you do, because I am you, Miusagi Mochizuki!”

“No! You’re… You’re _not_ me!”

“Now, Nana-chan! Summon your persona!” Teddie shouted. Miusagi fell to the floor as the shadow changed from boy to monster. Nanako took a deep breath and concentrated, bringing the card to her hand and crushing it. The figure of a beautiful woman appeared behind her. She had long, flowing black hair and wore a beautiful kimono. She had a serene look on her face as she daintily waved her paper fan. 

“Amenouzume!” she shouted. “Kouha!” Her persona threw streaks of light at Miusagi’s shadow. It only hurt it a little. Teddie seemed to be casting an ice spell, which didn’t do much either. After a moment, another spell came to her mind. “Eiha!” _So light_ and _dark then_ , she thought. Neither seemed to be helping. The shadow shot a huge gust of wind at them, nearly knocking both her and Teddie to the ground. 

Just when she was about to panic, she heard a voice call out to her. “Nanako-chan, duck!” She ducked her head just in time for the bullets from Naoto’s gun to skim over her head, sinking into the shadow. It wasn’t enough to stop it, but it slowed it down a little. 

“Kanji! It’s casting Magarula!” Naoto shouted.

Kanji nodded. “Leave this to me, then. Rokuten Maou! Ziodyne!” A huge wave of electricity crashed into the shadow, knocking it to the ground.

“Great job, Kanji-chan! You hit its weakness! Hit it again!” Teddie encouraged. Kanji zapped it one more time, and it stayed down. 

Miusagi stood, and walked towards the shadow, which had turned back into a boy. He looked at Kanji, noting that his expression was guarded. Naoto looked composed. All business as usual. “Y-You… saw everything. Right?” he asked weakly. Naoto gave a slight nod. Kanji didn’t react at all. Miusagi crouched down beside the shadow. “Hey,” he said softly. “Hey, look at me. I get it now, ok? You… you are me. And, you’re right.” He let out a long breath. “I do rely on them. A lot. I guess there are some things I need to deal with.” The shadow smiled, then started to shimmer away, and a blue card landed in Miusagi’s hand. “The Magician? Tsukiyomi,” he said softly, closing his eyes for a moment. 

Nanako placed her hand on his shoulder again. “You ok?” she asked.

“Yeah… fine,” he said. “Thanks, senpai.”

“Alright! You guys did a _beariffic_ job!” Teddie exclaimed. 

Miusagi walked over to Kanji. “I… we should…” He slumped to the floor before he could finish a sentence.

“Is that normal?” Nanako asked.

“Yes,” Naoto replied. “Accepting the shadow is draining. He will need to rest.” 

Kanji lifted Miusagi over his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get you kids the hell out of here. Lead the way, Ted.”

When they exited the TV, Kanji took Miusagi home. Nanako stayed to talk to Naoto. “I… I don’t really understand all of this yet. But I do know we would have been in trouble if you guys hadn’t come, so thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Your persona and mine have a lot in common. Light and dark can be really useful in some situations, and not helpful at all in others. You will have to find some other spells that work for those times. And learning to use a weapon would be a good idea, too.”

“O-Oh… like your gun?”

“Yes. The others all have different weapons of preference. When Miusagi-kun is feeling up to it, we can help you both decide what you’d like to train with.”

“Right. Ok, that sounds good.”

“Can I walk Nana-chan home, Nao-chan?” Teddie asked shyly.

“That… would be a great idea, Teddie. I will leave you to it. I trust that you will fill Souji in on what happened this afternoon, Nanako-chan?”

“I will,” she said, waving as she took Teddie’s hand and headed home. “He’ll be mad, won’t he?” she asked Teddie.

“Who, sensei? Hmm, maybe. But I think you guys did really well today. You’ve never fought before at all! You needed some help, but Nao-chan and Kanji-chan were there, so nothing bad happened. I’m really proud of you, Nana-chan!”

Nanako smiled. “Thanks, Teddie.” When they got to the house, no one else was home yet. “Do you, want to come in? It’s just leftovers again, but we could have dinner?”

“Oh! Teddie would love that, Nana-chan!” 

An hour later, they had bellies full of leftover curry, and were on the couch kissing when Rise and Souji walked in.

“Ooohhh, you two are so cute!” Rise exclaimed. Nanako and Teddie jumped apart. 

Souji cleared his throat. “I hear we have some things to talk about.” _It’s going to be a long night_ , Nanako thought.


	9. Chapter 9

Just as Nanako had thought, it had been a long night of explaining, lecturing, scolding, discussing and planning. The following afternoon, they were at Junes with the entire former Investigation Team. The plan was to talk about weapons and begin training. And they also needed to figure out how to save Sana-chan. Nanako and Miusagi were so new to this that it seemed unlikely they could just go in with only Teddie. But that seemed to be the way most of the team was leaning.

“Margaret said that we should remain in an advisory position, on the outside,” Souji told them.

“Oh, but poor Nanako-chan and Miusagi-kun! They don’t know anything about fighting shadows yet, really. I would feel awful sending them in alone,” Yukiko insisted.

“I agree,” said Rise. “I would at least feel better if they had me to guide them. That way Teddie would be able to fight without having to worry about as much stuff.”

“Uhh, but guys. We didn’t really have any of that in the beginning, either,” Yosuke mentioned. “It was just Souji and me, and then Chie, for quite awhile. And then Yukiko and Kanji, before we even had Rise to guide us. And then a bunch more time before Naoto joined up. We were the same age as these guys, knew nothing about fighting, and we didn’t have, well, _us_ to go to for advice.”

“Huh. Good point, Yosuke,” Chie chimed in. “It was just the three of us for months, and we got by just fine.”

“Well, I think - “ Teddie began to shout.

“Sit down, Teddie,” Souji said calmly. Teddie sat down immediately and zipped his lips.

“What’s your opinion, partner?” Yosuke asked Souji.

“I hate it. Completely. I think it should be us doing this. But I don’t think we have any other choice right now. What do you guys think?” he asked, turning to Kanji and Naoto.

“I think we need to do all we can to help,” Kanji began. Miusagi rolled his eyes at him. “No, I’m freaking serious, Miusagi. You three wouldn’t have made it out of there yesterday if we hadn’t come in to get you. I don’t think they should have to do this alone, senpai.”

“Naoto?” Souji asked. Everyone’s eyes settled on the detective.

“I… I agree with Margaret,” she said, making herself look away from Kanji so she would be able to finish. “I think that they are responsible and will learn, and we can do more good on the outside.”

“Great,” Kanji muttered. “What about you, Naoki?”

“Me?” Naoki replied. “I’ve… never really had to go in there other than to train. I don’t think my opinion should hold much weight.”

“Tell us anyway,” Souji prompted.

“I think that there’s probably a reason Margaret doesn’t think we should be in there. And if we mess with that, what if something goes wrong? So I think we should follow the rules and see what happens.”

Souji nodded. “I still hate it, but I agree. For now, we play the role of advisors. If things go wrong, we step in. Does that sound alright?” he asked, looking at Nanako. She nodded. Miusagi shrugged. Teddie grinned. “Then it’s settled.”

______________________________________________________________

The others each briefly explained their weapons to Nanako and Miusagi. As weird as Teddie’s bear claws were, Kanji’s “whatever’s closest and will knock the crap out of them” method was the strangest. “What are you even talking about?” Miusagi asked. “Like, what kind of stuff?”

“You know, just whatever. Folding chair, desk, whatever.”

In the end, Miusagi asked Souji to help him train with a sword, and Nanako decided to approach Naoki.

“Hey, Naoki?” she asked.

“Hmm? Something I can help you with, Nanako-chan?”

“I was wondering if you would help me learn to use a dagger. I know Yosuke uses daggers, too, but he uses two of them, and I don’t think that will work for me.”

“Oh. Are you sure? I mean, I’ve only ever trained, myself. It’s not like I’m an expert or anything.”

Nanako smiled. “I’m sure.”

“Alright, let’s go then.”

She and Naoki joined Miusagi and Souji for a lengthy training session inside the TV. She practiced with the dagger, and also when to use which spell. She was hoping to figure out some new ones like Naoto suggested. If she had enough tricks up her sleeve, she would feel more confident about rescuing Sana-chan. Teddie went along as well, to brush up on his skills, and in case anyone got hurt. After a long afternoon, they all gathered in the food court for snacks and drinks. 

“Hey,” Chie whispered to Rise. “Have Kanji and Naoto talked since earlier? When they voted against each other?” 

“Nope. Not a single word,” Rise answered. She frowned at her two best friends. It wasn’t like them to be at odds, and less like them to ignore each other.

“She looks really stressed out,” Chie said. “And he looks mad.”

“I didn’t think he ever got mad at Naoto,” Yukiko joined in.

After a while longer, Naoto finally looked at Kanji. “We should probably get going,” she said. “I need to stop in Junes to get something on the way home.” Kanji just nodded and followed her into the store.

______________________________________________________________

They walked in silence all the way to the pharmacy area. Naoto was glad that Yosuke and Teddie were both still down in the food court. This was embarrassing and awkward enough with just her husband who happened to be angry with her. They didn’t need an audience as well. Kanji didn’t say a word until he realized what aisle they were in, and what she had just picked up off the shelf.

“Wha- Naoto? What’s going on here?”

“What’s going on is that I am buying a home pregnancy test, Kanji.”

“Y-You’re -”

“No. I don’t know. It’s a possibility.” she said, tearing up and looking at the floor. She supposed the fact that she had been feeling more emotional lately could also be a symptom.

“Naoto -”

“Kanji, stop.” She held a hand to his lips. “I haven’t been feeling well for weeks now, and this is probably not why, but nothing else makes sense, either. So we’re going to just rule it out, alright?”

Kanji nodded. “Alright,” he said softly. He waited while she paid for the test, and then they walked home together in silence, holding hands.

______________________________________________________________

When the old team all went their separate ways for the evening, it was still only around seven. “We’re going back to my house for more snacks,” Nanako said. “Do you want to come?”

Miusagi shook his head. “Sounds fun, but my mom was kind of freaked out when Kanji brought me home like that last night. I should probably go home early.”

“Aww, we’ll miss you, Miu-kun! Have a pleasant evening!” Teddie yelled cheerfully. Nanako shrugged. 

Miusagi laughed. “You, too, buddy.” 

The truth was, he had a lot that he needed to think about. His mom hadn’t been home when Kanji hauled him in last night. And she likely wasn’t there now, either. She wasn’t a bad mom, but she wasn’t exactly involved in his life most of the time, either. She had been, before his dad died. After that, not so much. Thankfully, he had met Kanji shortly after. Having someone he could count on helped Miusagi get through some really tough times. He had only been five years old when his dad had died, and his mom had stopped making him the focal point of her life. 

He figured out quickly that Kanji spent a lot of time by the river with Souji, at Junes with the whole group, in front of the bookstore waiting to see if Naoto would show up there. When he wasn’t in those places, Miusagi could find him at the Textile Shop. He spent hours there suggesting new stuffed animals and different kinds of accessories they could wear, while watching Kanji work. Other than Sana-chan, Kanji was his best friend. That’s why this whole mom and dad thing his shadow brought up was weighing down so hard on his chest. Miusagi had never really thought about it in those terms, but he had spent more time playing while Kanji and Naoto sat at the picnic table by the river watching than he had spent with his own mom back then. When he thought back, he always chose to remember the times Naoto was stern or just downright scary, blocking out the times she calmly cleaned and bandaged his skinned knees, or helped him up when he fell down. He definitely had put aside the image of her smiling in front of him while Kanji pushed him on the swings at the park. Miusagi closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, he was at his front door. He pushed it open. “Mom?” he called out tentatively. No answer, as he’d expected. He went to his room and flopped onto his bed, not sure if he wanted to keep thinking, or shut it all off for now.

______________________________________________________________

When they got home, Naoto slipped into the bathroom and did what she had to do with the pregnancy test. Instead of waiting for the results, she bolted for the bedroom where Kanji was waiting. He was sitting at the foot of the bed, and his eyes widened when she came back in the room.

“Is it -”

“I-I don’t know. It… takes a few minutes.”

“Oh. Right. So… we might be. Pregnant.” He looked a bit pale, and excited at the same time.

Naoto smiled gently. “Maybe. Probably just me, though. Pregnant, I mean.”

Kanji laughed nervously. “This… it’s a pretty big deal, yeah? I mean.. I love kids, but I never thought we’d actually be real parents, you know?”

Naoto felt the color drain from her face. “Kanji, I’m scared. I don’t know how to do this. I would be a terrible mother.”

“Hey, come here,” he said, coaxing her to sit next to him on the bed. He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “How could you possibly think that? You’re gonna be a great mom!”

“What could possibly make you think that?” she asked, tearing up again.

“Naoto. Hey, look at me. You’re an amazing person,” he said softly.

“I don’t think being amazing is a qualification for motherhood, Kanji.”

“It is, though. You’re smart, and you have the most creative ideas. You can figure out ways to make anything work. Not to mention, you’ve already had a fair amount of practice with mom stuff, between Nanako-chan and Miusagi.”

“M-Mom stuff?” Naoto asked, looking up at him even though it made her tears well up again.

“Yeah! Mom stuff! Like homework and building stuff and kissing boo boos and all that! You’ve been doing that stuff for years, Naoto. Both those kids were better off for knowing you when they were young.”

“Hmm. Maybe. But we can’t just… give this one back, if I’m not good at it.”

Kanji laughed. “No, we can’t. But we can figure it all out together.”

“This doesn’t scare you at all, does it,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“No, I mean. I think we’ll be good at it. And we’ve been together for 10 years now. It’s probably time,” he said with a soft smile. 

“A-Are you still angry with me? For not taking your side earlier?” Naoto asked timidly.

“No, I - I wasn’t mad at you for not taking my side. I was mad that hardly anyone wanted to stand up for the kids. They need protecting, and who else is going to do it if we aren’t?”

“I understand. I still think we should let them try, though. And I had another more personal reason for thinking we shouldn’t spend much time in the TV world,” she said, nodding towards the bathroom door.

“O-Oh,” Kanji said. “You’re - You’re worried. About the baby.”

“W-We don’t even know if there is a baby! But, if there is, then yes. What happened to Nanako-chan all those years ago. That could be a possibility, couldn’t it?”

“I suppose it could,” Kanji said quietly. They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again. “Has it been long enough? For the test, I mean.”

“O-Oh. Yes, I think so.” Naoto stood up, grabbed her husband’s hand, and dragged him with her to the bathroom. She inspected the test, and looked up at him. “A baby. We’re having a baby.”

Kanji broke out in a huge grin, lifting her up in his arms and spinning her around. “Whooo! Yes!”

Naoto laughed until her sides hurt.


	10. Chapter 10

The new Investigation Team had made plans to start heading into Sana-chan’s part of the TV world the next afternoon. That was why morning found Miusagi skipping school again, and heading to the Textile shop instead. He took a deep breath before he pushed the door open. He walked up to Kanji and peeked over the counter to see what he was working on. “What’cha making?” he asked.

Kanji looked up. His expression was guarded again. He looked about as beaten as Miusagi felt. “It’s nothing,” he replied, shoving his project into a drawer. “Why aren’t you at school?”

“I… need to talk to you,” Miusagi started. He wasn’t even sure how to have this conversation. 

“Something the matter?” Kanji asked. He was being way too calm. 

“Look, I guess… the whole shadow thing… I’ve never actually hated you, that wasn’t quite right. But it was hard. I felt… guilty about my dad. He was gone, and you were there for me. No one else was, not even mom. S-So, yeah. And then, Naoto was there for me too, and it was hard to deal with that because I wanted it to be mom so badly. I guess I just want you to know that -”

“Miusagi. It’s fine. Alright? Everything’s fine. No one’s mad at you,” Kanji interrupted.

Miusagi finished anyway. “-that I do think of you like a dad.”

Kanji blinked. “You do?”

“Y-Yeah. Is that ok?”

“Yeah, yeah it’s ok,” Kanji answered with a small smile. “I think of you both that way, you and Nanako-chan. Naoto does, too.” He seemed far away for a moment before his look turned dreamy and a huge smile came to his face.

Miusagi laughed. “You’re being so weird. What’s going on?” Kanji pulled his project back out of the drawer. “Baby clothes? Wait, you guys are-”

“Shh,” Kanji urged. “No one knows yet.”

“No one at all?” Miusagi asked in a whisper.

“Nope. And we’re gonna keep it that way for a bit, ok?”

“Why the hell did you tell me, then?” Miusagi asked, feeling alarmed.

“Because you’re family. You should know.”

“Is Naoto going to kill me if she finds out you told me about it?”

“Only if you tell anyone else,” Kanji replied with a sly smile.

“Jerk,” Miusagi muttered.

Just then, Naoto opened the door to the shop. Miusagi sighed. It really was his luck to get busted both for skipping and for knowing things he shouldn’t know. “It’s not Sunday,” Naoto commented when she saw him. 

Miusagi looked at the floor. “Ahh, no. It’s not.”

She glanced at Kanji’s project. “You told him, then?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said with a smile.

Naoto nodded. _Looks like I’m going to get to live_ , Miusagi thought. “You have a busy afternoon ahead of you. Have you eaten yet?” Naoto asked.

“Umm, no, not really,” Miusagi answered.

She nodded again. “Come on, then. Let’s get you some breakfast before you head to school.” Miusagi followed her into the kitchen. 

“You aren’t mad then?” he asked as she started to gather food and make tea.

“About what?” Naoto asked.

“That Kanji told me… and about the school thing.”

Naoto smiled. “We were going to tell you anyway. And I’d be mad about school if I didn’t know where that habit rubbed off on you from,” she said, looking back towards the shop with a frown. “You’ve had a lot to deal with lately. I understand feeling like school is the least of your worries. That’s not to say that I don’t think you should be going, because you should.”

“I know. I’ll do better,” he said.

Naoto smiled again softly. “Good. Now eat your breakfast, Miu-kun, or you’ll be even later.”

______________________________________________________________

Not only was school boring, but Miusagi’s nerves were making it impossible to concentrate. He felt relieved when the day finally came to an end, and hurried off to the Junes food court to meet up with Nanako and Teddie. He found them waiting with Souji and Yukiko.

“Hey,” Miusagi said.

“Oh good, you made it,” Nanako said with relief. “It will just be us three going in.”

“That’s right!” Teddie exclaimed. “Sensei and Yuki-chan will wait here in case something bad happens. My watch is set for one hour. That’s when we’ll turn around and head back.”

The three new teammates headed for the electronics department. “What are they gonna do for an hour in the food court?” Miusagi asked curiously.

“Souji probably brought homework,” Nanako said. “I don’t know what Yukiko will do. They’ll probably just spend most of it talking to Yosuke since he’s working.”

“Oh, right. So do we have a plan for today?” he asked.

“Yep!” said Teddie. “We’re going to work on clearing the lower floors of Sana-chan’s area. We’ll get stronger from fighting them all, and then we can come back another day and move up.”

“Won’t that take a long time? I mean, she’s already been in there a few days. Didn’t you say she would die if it gets foggy on our side?”

“Yes,” Nanako answered. “But it will be awhile. And if we just run up to the top without training, we won’t be able to handle the shadows there.”

Miusagi nodded. He understood on one level, and on another he was completely miserable. If they waited too long, she would die. There was no way he was letting that happen. Still, he wasn’t in charge, so he followed quietly. The shadows on the first floor were pretty weak. They had trained enough already to do well. The second floor was another story. Teddie had to spend a lot more time healing the others, which left them with one less fighter. Right when Miusagi felt like they were finally getting the hang of things, they climbed the stairs to the third floor. The shadows here were even harder. As much as he wanted to push forward, he felt relief when Teddie’s watch alarm finally beeped. He pulled an item out of his bag that he referred to as a “GoHo-M”, threw it to the ground, and they were instantly warped back to the exit. Miusagi shook his head. _What the hell was that?!_

They climbed back into the real world, sneaking past the few customers in the electronics department, and made their way back down to the food court. Souji looked up from his textbook. “Ahh, good, perfect timing. How did it go?” he asked.

“Pretty well,” Nanako replied. She looked pleased. Miusagi wasn’t sure whether she was pleased with herself or the team in general. 

“We made it through the third floor!” Teddie announced.

“Oh, good,” Yukiko said. “You’re making good time.”

“How many floors are there, anyway?” Miusagi asked.

“Rise stepped in when we were training you guys the other day to do an analysis. She thinks it’s 10 floors,” Souji answered. Miusagi exhaled loudly.

“Hey, it’s fine,” Nanako said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “That’s only about 2 more trips in, 3 at the most. We’ll have her out soon.”

“You’re right. Thanks, senpai.”

Yukiko stifled a giggle. “I’m sorry, it’s just so strange hearing your teammates call you senpai, Nanako. We spent so much time listening to the others referring to Souji like that. It brings back memories.”

“Didn’t they call the rest of you senpai as well?” Nanako asked.

“They did,” Yukiko answered.” But they used our names with it. Souji for some reason was just ‘senpai’ to them.” She giggled again.

“Sensei was our fearless leader! He’s a beary special guy!” Teddie shouted. 

“I guess you’re special, too, Nanako,” Souji said with a wink. “Time to head home, guys, ok? You all look ridiculously tired.”

They all nodded and headed their separate ways. Miusagi walked home. He was both relieved and disappointed that his mom wasn’t there. She wouldn’t see how tired he looked and wonder what was going on, but at the same time, he really didn’t feel like spending another evening completely alone. He sighed, then headed back out the door. A short walk brought him to a small, yellow house with twinkle lights. He took a deep breath, then knocked. Kanji answered quickly. “Hey, Miusagi. How did it go today?”

“Good. Tired. Mom isn’t home yet, can I hang out here for awhile?”

“Come on in. I’ll make dinner.” 

Kanji ushered him in and shut the door. Miusagi stepped into the cozy living room, and let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding.


	11. Chapter 11

The second day was similar to the first, although they made it a little bit further. Nanako felt relieved to be finished with floor seven. “That’s only three more, Miusagi. Two really, because we’ll find Sana-chan on the last one.”

“Yeah… I’m glad. Thanks, senpai,” Miusagi replied.

Teddie slipped an arm around his shoulders. “Do you want to come have dinner with me and Nana-chan, Miu-kun?” Miusagi could tell from how hard Nanako was trying to look so ambivalent about it that she was not at all fine with him crashing their plans.

“Oh, thanks Teddie, but I have somewhere to be tonight. Another time?”

“Abs _bear_ lutely!” Teddie shouted with a smile. 

Miusagi headed back to the little yellow house. He knocked, and it was Naoto who answered this time, with a smile. “Good evening, Miu-kun. Kanji is waiting in the living room, come on in.”

“Right. Thanks,” he said, smiling back at her softly.

“Hurry up, Miusagi, the food’s going to get cold!” Kanji shouted from the living room. “We decided to get some takeout tonight, so we can get right into our little project.”

Miusagi took a seat by the table. The night before, the three of them had come up with a crazy idea for new plushies. Naoto had some skill with electronics, so the plan was to sew voice boxes into them. That way, when a little kid pressed its nose it would say a variety of phrases like “ _you’re my best friend!_ ” and “ _let’s have fun together!_ ” If the toys were a big hit, they might start taking custom orders for them, programming the animals to say whatever the customer wanted. The funny part about the whole thing is that Miusagi had been the one to suggest it, while being sarcastic. The more they had all talked it through, the more plausible it sounded. Tonight Kanji would work on a pattern for the stuffed animals, figuring in room for the voice box. Naoto had promised to show Miusagi the electronics. They were going to figure out how to make it work together. 

“I suppose this might seem boring when you could be out having fun, Miu-kun,” Naoto said quietly as they worked.

“Nah. I mean, my only other offer was dinner with Nanako and Teddie.”

“That doesn’t seem like a bad offer,” she said, one eyebrow raised.

“It is if you don’t want to watch the Nanako and Teddie show,” he said with a laugh.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kanji asked, not looking up from his sketches.

“I guess they’re… dating, or something,” Miusagi answered.

“Huh. I mean, I figured they would eventually. But still. Kinda weird.”

“Indeed. Very weird,” Naoto said. All three of them looked up and started laughing at the same time.

______________________________________________________________

“Well? What do you think?” Nanako asked, holding up a very proper looking red dress at Croco Fur.

“Hmm. Too much Yukiko, not enough Nanako,” Teddie answered seriously. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Try this one!” He handed her a hot pink one-shouldered mini dress with a million ruffles.

Nanako shook her head. “Too much Rise, not enough Nanako.”

Teddie laughed happily. Nanako held up a lavender blazer and raised her eyebrow. “Too much Naoto, not enough Nanako?” he asked.

“Exactly,” she said with a giggle.

“Oooh, wait wait, one more!” Teddie said excitedly, holding up a green sports bra and matching skirt.

“ _Wayyyy_ too much Chie, no Nanako at all,” she said, trying to keep a straight face.

“What do you need a new dress for anyway, Nana-chan? I mean, dresses are nice, but you don’t wear them too often anymore.”

“Just a hunch,” said Nanako. “Hey, what do you think of this one?” she asked, holding a pale pink sheath dress up to herself.

“That one’s _alllll_ Nanako,” Teddie replied with a wink and a sparkle. 

“Good. I’m going to get it. Then we should hurry if we want time to enjoy a meal before the movie starts,” she said.

Despite how far they had made it in the TV world that afternoon, they had also managed to cut out early enough for shopping, dinner and a movie on a weeknight. Nanako was glad for the break. Everything about fighting shadows was miserable and draining. And since she was the “leader”, it was her responsibility to look like none of it bothered her. Having a fun night with Teddie was the perfect way to destress. They had sandwiches and hot chocolate at the cafe, watched a funny movie, and ended the night with a lengthy goodnight kiss on Nanako’s front porch.

“I’m sorry that we haven’t talked about, well, this,” Nanako admitted quietly. “Things have been pretty crazy, and I -”

“Shh, don’t be upset, Nana-chan, Teddie understands.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her. “I do really like being with you, though,” he added.

Nanako giggled. “Same. I just feel bad. You’ve been waiting a long time for me… haven’t you?” She suddenly felt way less sure of herself.

Teddie just shrugged. “I’m beary good at waiting.” He gave her one last kiss. “Goodnight, Nana-chan!” he called out cheerfully as he headed home.

“Night!” she shouted. Nanako sighed softly. _I am so in over my head_.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, I was wrapped up in studying for my GRE last week! Thank goodness that's over with! Now, back to the story...

The last two floors of Sana-chan’s area in the TV world were not much different than the previous few. In what felt like no time at all, they were running up to the top floor to meet her shadow. Miusagi was glad he had become skilled with a sword, because his persona’s thunderstorm was doing absolutely nothing against Sana-chan’s shadow. Teddie’s ice spells were a little better, but it was Nanako’s dark spells that were getting them through it. Miusagi’s heart nearly broke when Sana-chan’s shadow kept taunting her about her parents not wanting her, and her sister not being around enough to even matter to her life. He knew she had it rough, but hearing the shadow’s perspective made it seem much more lonely for her. He had done all he could over the years to fill in some of those gaps in her life. _Maybe I need to try harder in the future_ , he thought, as he stabbed her shadow with his sword again. 

When the battle was over, Sanae approached her shadow. She pushed her straight, dark hair out of her eyes and sniffled a little before speaking. “I’m sorry… I know we’ve been alone a lot. And I did sometimes wonder why mom and dad left us like they did. Sis, she tries hard, but it’s been tough raising me on her own when someone should have been raising us both. But, I understand how you feel, because you’re… me.” Her shadow began to fade and twinkle, a blue card shimmering into her hand. She looked up at it. “Mikumari,” she whispered, glimpsing the word _Empress_ before the card vanished and she fell to the floor. Miusagi was quick to pick her up and help her stand. 

“Come on, Sana-chan, it’s time to go home now,” he murmured softly.

“Miusagi-kun? Why are you? I don’t remember…”

Nanako got on her other side so they could help her walk to the exit. “It’s alright, now,” she said. “We won’t let anything else happen to you.”

Sanae nodded. She wasn’t sure what to think. Wasn’t that Nanako Dojima? What was the star of the track team doing here of all places, and with Miusagi, too? She was too tired to figure it out, so she said nothing, even as they climbed through a TV and landed inside Junes. “Come on,” Miusagi said. “Let’s get you home.”

______________________________________________________________

A few days later, Sanae was feeling better, and she joined the others at the food court. She had some serious questions about what exactly had happened to her. She wanted to get mad and she had no idea why, but Nanako-senpai was being really nice to her, and the strange boy Teddie gave her a pair of teal glasses like the others had been wearing, and Miusagi was just… Miusagi. He was always exactly what she needed at any given time. Her temper cooled considerably long before she spoke. “I need to know everything. Please tell me what happened to me?” she pleaded. The other kids told her the whole story, several times, slowly, until she somewhat understood. “I want… can I join you? I got one of these persona things, right? So I can help.”

“Sanae -” Miusagi began, but Nanako cut him off.

“Of course you can,” Nanako said with a genuine smile. “We would love to have you.” 

“It’s dangerous,” Miusagi stated.

“Yes”, Nanako replied, “for all of us.”

Sanae turned to face him. “I’m doing this. You’ll help me, right?” All Miusagi could do was nod. Sana-chan always got whatever she wanted from him.

______________________________________________________________

The next afternoon, Miusagi was hanging out at the textile shop. He had become a regular at Kanji and Naoto’s house in the evenings, and still found himself walking to the shop most days after school to see what was going on. He was feeling more like himself since Sana-chan had been rescued. Maybe even more like himself than he had ever felt before accepting his persona. That was a weird fact that he wasn’t sure how to feel about yet.

“Hey, so what do your glasses look like?” Kanji asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“What? Glasses?”

“Don’t give me that, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The ones Ted made you!”

“O-Oh… right.” Miusagi pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and handed them to Kanji. 

Kanji blinked. They were exactly like his, only smaller. He burst into laughter. “Ha! I should’ve known,” he said, still cracking up.

“You’re weird, “ Miusagi said with a frown. _He sure has been carefree lately_ , he thought.

“You wanna see mine? Wait,” Kanji replied, still choking on his laughter. He walked to his desk and opened the top drawer, pulling out a pair of sunglasses. 

“They’re… exactly the same. Just bigger,” Miusagi said with surprise when Kanji handed him the glasses. After a moment, he frowned. “Does Teddie just think of me as some miniature version of you or something?”

Kanji shrugged. “You never know with Ted. Hey, how’s Sana-chan doing?”

“Fine,” Miusagi said with a sigh. “She officially joined the group. I have no idea how I’m supposed to keep her safe when it’s like she just walked out in front of a moving train that I’m not fast enough to stop.”

Kanji looked serious, but his eyes danced. “Some girls don’t need that kind of protecting,” he said.

“Right, well, your wife carries a gun. Sanae is not like that,” Miusagi muttered.

“When we first got our powers, well when Naoto did, I used to try and protect her during fights. She was so small… I just couldn’t imagine her being safe in there on her own. So I begged senpai to always send us in on the same team. I drove her absolutely crazy at first, jumping in between her and the shadows, making sure she hardly had to do anything. Wasn’t long before she told me to cut the crap,” Kanji said with another laugh. “What I’m trying to say is, give her a chance. You’re all new to this, and she might be really good at it.”

“I guess you have a point,” Miusagi said with another sigh. Then he grinned. “So what’s for dinner tonight, mister?”

Kanji rolled his eyes. “A knuckle sandwich if you don’t cut that mister crap already!” he replied with a smile.


	13. Chapter 13

Nanako touched the tiny, gold star she wore around her neck. She always wore it, even to sleep. Teddie had given it to her years ago on her seventh birthday. “I thought it might remind you of me!” he exclaimed. She still remembered it like it was yesterday. _I think I’ve been in love with him since we first met_ , she thought. _I just wish that made it clear what the right thing to do is._ She shook her head as she studied herself in the mirror. She was wearing the pale pink sheath she had bought the week before. There was a party tonight at Naoto and Kanji’s house. Nanako had a feeling that some big news was coming, she just wasn’t entirely sure what it was. She had agreed to go to the party with Teddie, who would be showing up on her doorstep at any moment. Nanako slipped into some black ballet flats, and headed downstairs to wait.

“Oh, Nanako, you look really nice!” Dojima commented when she came down the stairs.

“Thanks, Dad. I’m going to the dinner party at Naoto’s house. Teddie is coming by and we’re going to walk over together,” she said as casually as possible.

“Is that so?” Dojima asked, looking at her over his newspaper. 

“Y-Yes,” Nanako said, trying not to panic.

“Well then, tell everyone I said hello.”

“Oh, of course I will, Dad!” Nanako stepped into the kitchen and very quietly let out the breath she’d been holding. She had expected a comment about Teddie. _It isn’t like Dad to be so calm about this._

A moment later the doorbell rang. “I’ve got it, Dad!” she called out, hurrying to get to the door before he did. When she opened it, she wasn’t expecting the breath to get knocked out of her. Teddie was standing there in a suit, holding a yellow flower and looking down at her with dreamy eyes. Nanako had never seen him look quite this handsome before. Or this sparkly.

“Are you alright Nana-chan? You sound like you’ve been running around the block,” he said. 

“F-Fine,” she stammered.

“You look _bear_ utiful this evening!”

Nanako laughed, regaining her composure. “Thanks.” 

Dojima had made it to the door behind her. “You kids be good. And have a nice time,” he said.

Nanako looked at him curiously. He was being way too cool about this. “We will,” she said.

“Thanks, pops!” Teddie said cheerfully with a big grin. Nanako quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the street, waving to Dojima as they walked off. “Oh, I almost forgot,” Teddie said. “This is for you.” He tucked the yellow flower behind Nanako’s ear.

“Umm, thanks,” she said shyly. Then she took a deep breath, reached for Teddie’s hand, and continued walking to the party.

______________________________________________________________

Dinner was really nice. Because everyone was there, they had to push a couple of tables together, but there was a place for everyone. Nanako found it interesting that Miusagi sat by Kanji and Naoto, rather than joining her and Teddie at the other end of the table. She’d assumed he would want to sit near kids his own age. Still, he seemed perfectly comfortable there. After dinner, they all gathering in the cozy living room.

“Thank you all for coming tonight. We have a couple of pieces of news to share with the group, and we thought it would be nice to get everyone together,” Naoto began.

“Come, on, tell us already!” Chie taunted. She gave Naoto a wink, which made Nanako certain that she knew already.

“Yeah, guys, let’s get on with it already,” Souji said in a teasing tone.

Kanji’s eyes met Naoto’s for a beat before he loudly shouted, “We’re having a baby!”

“Oh my gosh, you guys!” Rise squealed, immediately grabbing Naoto for a hug and an attempt at touching her stomach. 

“Nice!” Yosuke exclaimed, fist bumping Kanji.

Souji pulled Kanji into a hug. “I knew things would work out for you, buddy,” he said very softly.

“Thanks, senpai,” Kanji beamed.

“This is such wonderful news, you two,” Yukiko said happily. Naoki punched Kanji on the arm, smiling softly and saying nothing. 

Teddie got away from Nanako and ran up to Naoto. “Nao-chan, you have a _baby_ growing inside you?!”

Naoto laughed. “That’s right,” she said. 

“C-Can I… Can I touch your belly?” he asked, barely restraining his excitement.

“There… isn’t really a reason to yet. It’s too early to… feel anything.”

“Oh, ok Nao-chan,” Teddie said sadly. “When it’s time can I?”

Naoto laughed again. “Yes, Teddie. I will let you know.”

Nanako noticed that Miusagi was just standing to the side, smiling at them. She walked up beside him. “You don’t look very surprised,” she said quietly.

He turned to her and grinned. “Not at all. They told me a while ago.” His eyes narrowed. “You don’t looked surprised, either,” he said suspiciously.

Nanako laughed. “I’m not. They’ve been together forever, what else were they going to announce at a party?” She slipped over to Kanji and Naoto to give them congratulatory hugs, then pulled Teddie away from them, as he was still questioning Naoto about babies and when this one would be ready for touching. 

When everyone finally settled down, Naoki spoke. “So, umm, the other piece of news is ours.” He looked at Yukiko, and she beamed at him. 

“We’re getting married!” she said brightly, not taking her eyes off of Naoki. Everyone went into a frenzy again, hugging and congratulating. 

“Geeze, it’s about time, you guys!” Chie exclaimed. This sent Yukiko into one of her laughing fits, and before long the whole room was laughing with her. 

After another hour, with the party looking like it wasn’t going to break up anytime soon, Nanako and Teddie decided to head out. They asked Miusagi if he wanted to join them, but he said he was going to stay a little longer before going home to see his mom. “I guess it’s just you and I,” she told Teddie when they stepped outside.

“Where would you like to go?” Teddie asked.

“The river,” Nanako answered. “We can sit on the hill and look at the town.” It was really pretty at night, with all the house lights on in the dark. 

They sat down at the picnic table facing each other. “That was a really nice party,” Nanako said. “You look… really good all dressed up,” she said, starting to feel shy, but being honest anyway.

“You think so?” Teddie asked. Nanako nodded. He leaned in and kissed her sweetly. “I think you look even better. All Nanako.”

Nanako giggled. She looked into his sparkling blue eyes and couldn’t hold back anymore. “I love you, Teddie.”

“Oh, Nana-chan! I love you, too!” Teddie said with relief.

“Can… Can I be your girlfriend, Teddie?”

“I would like that…” Teddie said.

“... _beary_ much?” Nanako asked.

Teddie laughed, kissing her again. They spent a long time by the river before Teddie walked her home.

Souji had just pulled up on his scooter when she was walking to the door. “Did you have a nice evening?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. 

“Yes! You?”

“Absolutely.” They walked into the house together, both saying goodnight to Dojima and heading to their rooms for the night.


	14. Chapter 14

Emiko Vaughn had spent the past few weeks in England, visiting with her dad’s side of the family. She’d been living in her mom’s hometown of Inaba since the first grade, where she had met her longtime best friends, Nanako Dojima and Takeyoshi Aragaki. She liked England, but she couldn’t imagine living anywhere but Inaba. She felt relieved to be home, and quickly sent out texts to her favorite people. Nanako answered right away, and they agreed to meet at Aiya for lunch. 

Emiko hadn’t heard back from Takeyoshi, but she sent another text with the time and place for her lunch meetup with Nanako, hoping that he would show up. She pigtailed her long, bleached blonde hair and put on the cute new outfit she had picked up on her trip. She put a lot of work into her appearance most of the time anyway, but if there was even a chance Takeyoshi might be there, it was worth going the extra mile. Emiko coated her lashes in black mascara, and dabbed on a touch of shiny lipgloss before heading out into the shopping district. When she saw Nanako waiting outside Aiya, she broke into a run. “Nanako-chan!” she shouted as she crashed into her best friend, pulling her into a hug.

“Emi-chan! I’m so glad you’re home!” Nanako exclaimed happily. “Shall we head in?” she asked, gesturing to the restaurant.

“Oh,” Emiko replied, feeling slightly crushed and hoping it didn’t show. “Sure, that sounds great.”

Nanako raised her eyebrows. “Something’s wrong?” she asked gently.

“Not really,” Emiko sighed. “I texted Yoshi-kun this morning and he never answered. And I let him know we’d be meeting here, so I thought maybe…” She shrugged. “You know what? It’s totally fine. You and I have tons to catch up on anyway.” She linked her arm with Nanako’s, and they headed into the restaurant, grabbing a booth in the back corner. They had learned long ago that it was the best place to talk in Aiya if you didn’t want everyone listening in.

“So how was London? Your outfit is really pretty,” Nanako commented. Nanako always noticed important things.

“Oh, it was really nice! And thanks. I’m so glad I’m home, though. I missed you guys so much!” She had been trying to stop thinking about Takeyoshi, but there he was again. “Have you… seen Yoshi-kun much lately?” she asked, trying to sound casual about it.

“Not really. I’ve actually been really busy since you’ve been gone.”

“Oooh, details, please! What’s going on?”

“Hmm, let’s see…” Nanako was trying to decide how to not tell her best friend about all of the chaos without her figuring it out anyway. _Not that she would be able to guess about Personas and jumping into TV’s_ , Nanako thought. “Lots of family-like news, mostly. Kanji and Naoto are having a baby.”

“Aww, finally! That’s so sweet!” Emiko replied.

“Right? And Yukiko and Naoki are finally engaged,” Nanako continued.

“For real? That took forever!” The girls shared a giggle. “What about you, Nanako? What’s new in your own life?”

“Well, umm.. Teddie and I are, well. Dating.” _It’s probably better to tell her that than ‘I learned new magic spells inside a television.’_

“What?! Oh my goodness, Nanako-chan! I’m so happy for you! What made you finally go for it?” Emiko asked.

“It just felt right. I mean, you know me. I’ve loved him forever.”

“I know,” Emiko said dreamily. Then she frowned. Where on earth was Takeyoshi? “Nanako-chan?”

“Mmm hmm?”

“I can’t seem to shake the feeling that something’s wrong. With Takeyoshi-kun, I mean.”

“Let’s go look for him after lunch. He’s got to be around here somewhere, right?”

“Right. Thanks,” she replied.

______________________________________________________________

They looked all over town, but Takeyoshi seemed to be nowhere. Nanako was starting to worry as much as Emiko when they hadn’t located him by dinnertime. “I think that I should ask some friends to help us figure out where he is,” Nanako said cautiously.

“Huh? Like who?” Emiko asked, confused.

“Just… Teddie, and some kids I know from school.” Nanako pulled out her phone and sent a group text to her recently formed team.

 

_I’m having trouble locating my friend Takeyoshi. Can you guys come to Junes? I have another friend with me and we’re really worried about him._

_My shift ends in 30 minutes! I’ll wait for you all at the food court!_

 

The others responded shortly, promising to be there as well. “Come on, Emi-chan. We’re meeting the others at Junes.”

“Hmm. Alright, Nanako-chan,” Emiko answered. She wasn’t sure why Nanako was being so secretive. Who were these friends that Emiko didn’t know about? 

When they arrived at Junes, Teddie was waiting. “Hiya, Emi-chan!” he said brightly as he wrapped an arm around Nanako. 

“Hello, Teddie! Oh my gosh, you guys are so cute together!”

Teddie blushed a little. “Oh, well, thanks, Emi-chan!”

When the others arrived, Emiko was even more confused. “You guys are first years, right?” she asked. “How do you all know each other?”

“Oh!” Nanako said with surprise. “Well, I know Miusagi through Kanji, and Sanae is a friend of his.”

“Alright,” Emiko said. “So how are we going to find Takeyoshi-kun with their help if we couldn’t find him ourselves?”

Nanako sighed. “It’s a long, weird story. And I will tell it to you, but let’s get started first. Teddie?”

“Right, follow me!” he said cheerfully, leading them all to the electronics department. They stopped by a big TV in the middle, and Teddie looked around nervously. 

“Umm, you all wait here. I’ll be right back!” He jumped into the TV, and Nanako quickly put her hand over Emiko’s mouth as she started to shout in surprise.

“You maybe should have told her that part first,” Miusagi said with a grin.

“Yeah,” Emiko agreed in a whisper. “What the heck was that?”

“Don’t worry, I still think it’s weird, too,” Sanae added.

Teddie popped back out of the TV a moment later. “I definitely smell someone in there, Nana-chan,” he said. “And I think you’re right that it’s Yoshi-kun.”

Nanako frowned. “That’s not what I wanted to hear, but at least we know what we have to do now.”

“What’s that?” Emiko asked.

“We’re going to rescue him. Come on, Emi-chan. Let’s go get a snack at the food court so we can fill you in on everything.

______________________________________________________________

“I want to help,” Emiko said when the others had finished telling her what was going on.

“You don’t have a persona,” Miusagi said.

“Well none of you did either, so what makes you think I won’t get one if I go in there with you?”

“She has a point,” Teddie said quietly. 

“Thank you, Teddie,” Emiko beamed.

Nanako nodded. “Alright. You can come with us when we go in tomorrow. But you’re going to stay close to me, and you’ll hang back when we fight. As things are right now, you’re completely defenseless.”

“That’s fine, Nanako-chan. I’ll behave,” Emiko said with a soft smile.

“I’m going to call Souji and the others. Maybe some of them can meet up tomorrow, and show Sanae some weapons.”

“Oh, right,” Miusagi said, frowning. “You haven’t fought yet, Sana-chan.”

Sanae shrugged. “I think the bigger issue is that it’s supposed to rain tonight, isn’t it?” she added.

“Ok, guys. Everyone watch the Midnight Channel tonight, then. If Takeyoshi-kun is inside the TV, he might show up on it. We’ll meet back here tomorrow after school.”


	15. Chapter 15

That night, Nanako and Souji both stayed up late to watch the Midnight Channel. “We may as well watch together, right?” Souji asked. Nanako nodded and followed him up to his room. They passed the couple of hours left until midnight with Nanako on the couch reading while Souji sat at the table making paper cranes.

“Do you still do that for money, or is it just for fun now?” Nanako asked, not looking up from her book.

Souji smiled softly. “A little of both. Actually, I was planning to fold 1000 paper cranes as a gift for Kanji and Naoto. It’s supposed to bring good luck, and they can hang them in the nursery.”

Nanako finally looked at him and returned his smile. “That’s adorable. I hope you’ve gotten really fast at making them, because pregnancies only last 9 months and you’re down to at least 8 already, right?”

“I can do it, that’s plenty of time,” Souji said, sounding determined. 

Nanako laughed. “Whatever you say.”

Just before midnight, Souji was looking out the window. Nanako could tell he was feeling restless. She stood up and stretched. Just then, the TV turned itself on. They both turned and stared at it in disbelief, even though they had reason to believe just about anything.

Nanako shook slightly as she watched the blurry figure on the screen. “It’s definitely Takeyoshi-kun,” she said sadly.

“I’ll text the others,” Souji said, grabbing his phone. “We’ll get as many of us to meet up tomorrow afternoon as possible so we can help you make a plan. Alright?”

“Is there much point to a plan? I mean, it should be pretty much the same as when we rescued Sanae, right?”

“Yes and no,” Souji answered. “In my experience, these things tend to escalate. And it depends on the person. Do you know if Takeyoshi-kun has been going through anything difficult lately?”

“Not that I know of,” Nanako answered. 

“Then it might be no big deal. But you wanted us to help Sana-chan pick a weapon tomorrow, anyway, so we may as well get the gang together.” Nanako nodded. So long as they managed to save Takeyoshi, it didn’t matter how it happened. She yawned and stretched again. “Go get some sleep, Nanako. We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Souji said, pushing her towards the door. Nanako nodded again and headed for her own room, tumbling onto the bed and falling asleep quickly despite the things swirling around in her mind.

______________________________________________________________

The next afternoon, Nanako’s team met with Souji, Kanji, Naoto, and also Yosuke, who happened to be working in the food court. The others had work obligations they couldn’t get out of. Nanako had brought Emiko as well, deciding that if she was going in with them, she should know as much about the situation as possible.

Naoto was sitting on one of the tables in the midst of their group. “There are some big differences in this case from what happened in the past,” she began. “One thing I have noticed is that the victims have not appeared on television before we’ve seen them on the Midnight Channel.”

“That’s true,” Souji said, thoughtful. “And they also haven’t had the same sort of, umm… shows. They appear blurry like they used to before entering the TV.”

“Right, I’m glad someone else noticed,” Naoto replied. “The blurry images used to indicate that they were a target, but had not yet been kidnapped.”

“It’s also weird that the fog is back in the TV, isn’t it? I mean… that was supposed all stop, right? After we won,” Kanji asked. 

“Yeah,” Souji replied. “So long as ‘mankind’s wishes’ didn’t change.”

“This crap all makes my brain hurt,” Kanji said with a frown.

“Hey, whatever happened with Namatame?” Yosuke asked. “Chie said you were trying to contact him to see if he was alright.”

“I was able to touch base with him this morning, actually,” Naoto said. “He said he had to go out of town on business suddenly and that nothing out of the ordinary had happened.”

“Obviously that’s not true,” Kanji said. “He’s got to be hiding something.”

“I agree,” Naoto said. “Whatever happened has him scared, and he doesn’t want to get involved.”

“So how do we make him tell us the truth?” Yosuke asked.

“If I remember correctly, trying to make Namatame tell us the truth didn’t go so well last time.”

“Wait!” Nanako interrupted. “Namatame was involved last time, too? You guys didn’t tell me that part.”

“We… sort of didn’t want to,” Kanji mumbled.

“It’s not something we’re proud of,” Yosuke added.

“We still need to know about it,” Miusagi pointed out.

Souji sighed. “Namatame was being manipulated by the real culprit. He thought that the people shown on the Midnight Channel were going to be killed, and that throwing them in the TV would save them. He had no idea that being inside the TV when the fog came to our world was what was actually killing them.” He took a deep breath and continued. “After Mayumi Yamano was killed, Namatame moved back to Inaba, his hometown, and began working as a local deliveryman.”

“The deliveryman…” Nanako said, feeling shocked. “He’s who took me.” None of the others could look at her for a moment. “S-So, what else happened? There’s more, isn’t there? Something you’re all ashamed of?”

“We thought he was the culprit. And we knew under the circumstances that it was unlikely he would be brought to justice.” Naoto paused, unsure how to continue.

Kanji continued instead. “We considered throwing him in the TV and letting him die.”

Yosuke added, “Almost did it, too.”

Naoto finished. “It was my idea.”

Souji cleared his throat, so they would focus on him instead of continuing to stare at the ground. “But we made the right decision in the end, and figured out who the true culprit was.”

Nanako looked at the floor this time. She found it difficult to swallow. _Adachi_ , she thought. He had been her dad’s partner, and a family friend. And because of him, she had almost died. And despite all of that, her dad and Souji had forgiven him in some capacity, because after the first couple of years, they began visiting him on holidays. _Because he was like family, and he had no one else_ , they had told her. Knowing the whole truth made her feel sick to her stomach. Teddie reached out and took her hand, which made it a little bit easier to breathe.

“Ok, so… I guess what we can take from that is to be sure before we do anything crazy,” Miusagi said, trying to steer the conversation forward. 

“And even if he’s not telling the truth, it’s probably because he’s scared, right?” Sanae asked.

“Yes, I believe so. For the time being, I wouldn’t consider him a suspect,” Naoto answered. 

“What about Takeyoshi-kun?” Emiko asked. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to save him,” Nanako said, coming back to earth with more determination than ever. There was no way she was going to let one of her closest friends die in there.

“But first, some weapons and a little training,” Souji reminded her. 

They moved to the electronics department in smaller groups, all heading just inside the TV world with the weapons box. Emiko had heard about how this worked, but it was still terrifying. _How do they not all throw up every time?_ she wondered. She felt sort of left out as they showed weapons to Sanae. She wondered if she should have been paying better attention, and considering what weapon she would pick if she got one of these persona things.

Sanae decided on a whip. Her persona had water magic, and this weapon would allow her to keep a little distance. It would allow her more time to focus on her magic if she wasn’t right up front in every fight. No one on the previous Investigation Team had used one, but they took her in to train with a small group. Souji, Yosuke and Teddie went with her. Nanako stayed by Emiko’s side, which made her feel a little less freaked out. Sanae felt a little overwhelmed when she summoned her persona for the first time. Mikumari had long, teal braids. Her figure was shaped almost like a mermaid, but not quite. She was more human than fish. Sanae thought she looked beautiful and a little bit intimidating at the same time. 

Miusagi wanted to go with Sana-chan, but he remembered Kanji’s story about being overprotective of Naoto, and decided to give her a little space to train. He noticed Kanji standing against the wall, away from everyone else, and decided to join him. “So… you guys still feel really bad about it, huh?”

“About what?” Kanji asked, not looking up.

“About almost killing the mayor,” Miusagi said with a half smile.

“Wasn’t the mayor back then,” Kanji replied.

“Right,” Miusagi said. “Well, you didn’t do it, so you shouldn’t still be hung up on it. It was like 10 years ago, wasn’t it?”

“Naoto feels worse than me or Yosuke. Blames herself because it was her idea. But it was us that had him by the arms about to go through with it. Luckily, senpai had a clear head and put a stop to it. You, you’re kind of a hot head like me. You make sure and always listen to Nanako-chan before you make stupid decisions, you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” Miusagi said, looking down. Then he looked up at Kanji with a big grin. “Hey, I know what will cheer you up. You’re gonna be a _dad_ soon.”

Kanji couldn’t help the huge smile he felt on his face. “Yeah. Thanks, Miusagi.” _Already sort of am_ , Kanji thought happily.

The training session was kept fairly short. Sanae got tired pretty quickly. Nanako suspected that it wasn’t easy for her to train in her own part of the TV world, but it was where the strongest enemies were and she needed that kind of experience. She was also worried about Emiko being inside the TV for too long. She didn’t have a pair of glasses, so she must have been exhausted. _I’ll ask Teddie to make her a pair for tomorrow_ , Nanako thought before they exited the TV.


	16. Chapter 16

When Emiko arrived at the food court the next afternoon, Teddie was the only one waiting. “Oh, there you are, Emi-chan! I have something for you!” He handed her a pair of purple glasses. 

“Oh, thank you Teddie. What are these for? I noticed everyone else was wearing them but I forgot to ask.”

“They’re special Teddie made glasses! They help you see through the fog in my world.”

“Y-Your world?” Emiko asked.

“Oh, I guess you don’t know yet. Teddie was born in the TV world!” he exclaimed happily.

“Hmm. I guess that would explain some things,” Emiko said, waving as she saw Nanako and the others approaching their table.

“Oh, good, you got your glasses!” Nanako said to Emiko. “Is everyone ready?” The others nodded. “Good. So our plan for today is just to make it through a few of the bottom floors. The enemies get stronger as you climb higher. If we can get about 3 floors done today that would be great, but we’ll ultimately come back when we get tired.”

Emiko took a deep breath and followed the others to the electronics department. Nanako grabbed her hand, and one of Teddie’s, and they all jumped together this time. _It’s not as bad if you close your eyes_ , Emiko thought. She did as she told, staying close to Nanako as they walked the halls, and hanging back for each fight with a shadow. Takeyoshi’s part of the TV world looked like the inside of Yasogami High. Emiko had no idea why it would be that, it wasn’t like he was that involved with school. She had started feeling pretty strange, then realized that she was standing beside her own classroom. She swore she heard someone whisper her name. 

“W-Who’s there?” she asked softly, touching her hand to the door. She knew that the others had continued on, but she felt drawn to the room. 

Nanako realized she wasn’t beside her and turned around. “Emi-chan?” she called out.

Emiko looked towards her friend, then back at the door. Her hand was still pressed against it. “I… I need to go in,” she said, suddenly feeling very vulnerable.

The others came running back down the hall towards her, arriving right when she pushed the door open. Her mouth dropped. Inside was... herself. Or at least it really looked like her. Whoever the girl was, she was slumped over a desk crying. She crouched down in front of the desk, and touched the girl’s arm with her hand. “Are you alright?” she asked.

The girl lifted her head. She looked _exactly_ like Emiko! “He’s gone and I don’t know where he is!” she wailed at the real Emiko.

Emiko shook as she spoke. “Where who is?” she asked softly.

“Takeyoshi-kun! He’s missing! I have to find him!” she shrieked.

Emiko nodded. “I know. That’s why we’re here. We’re going to find him.”

“It doesn’t even matter!” The girl snapped. “It’s not like he likes me, anyway. All these years of pining for him and he still doesn’t like me enough to ask me out, _at all_!”

“No… he does. He’s just not… ready…”

Emiko’s shadow laughed. “The foolish things you tell yourself to keep going on. He doesn’t want you; he’s _never_ wanted you!”

Emiko flinched, moving back from the shadow. “No, that’s not true... “

“And you’re such a naive little girl that you fall for it every time. _‘Of course we’re friends, Emi-chan, yes, I like spending time with you.’_ Not a word of it is true!” 

“And how would _you_ know that?” Emiko asked, getting to her feet. She was starting to feel angry. 

The shadow laughed again. “Because you are me, and I am you.”

“No,” Emiko replied softly. Then she felt rage boil up inside of her. “You are _not_ me!” she screamed.

Nanako jumped in, pushing Emiko back. “Let’s go guys, this is it!”

Emiko shook and rocked herself in the corner as she watched the others fight her shadow. While the glasses Teddie had given her prevented her from getting so tired, the downside was that she saw everything. _Watching your best friend try to kill you is pretty weird_ , she thought. Her shadow seemed to have some sort of scanning ability. It was able to predict and reflect any of the magic attacks the team threw at it. “Guys! It won’t work! Try physical attacks!” Emiko exclaimed loudly. Her friends were almost out of health, and running low on items.

“We’ll try it, Emi-chan!” Teddie exclaimed, tearing at the shadow with his claws. The attack got through! Emiko breathed a sigh of relief.

“Looks like she’s right, guys!” Nanako shouted. “Use all physical for now!” It took a bit more time, but they were able to take the shadow out. It slumped to the floor and Emiko approached it once again.

“It’s ok,” she told her shadow. “We’re going to find him. Even if he doesn’t feel the same way about us, he’s still one of our best friends.” The shadows smiled, then faded out into a blue light, a card coming to land in Emiko’s palm. “Rhiannon,” she whispered. “The… Lovers?”

“Wow,” Teddie said quietly. “Emi-chan’s persona is pretty special. A little like mine, but more like Rise-chan’s. I think she can navigate and heal. I don’t think she can fight.”

Nanako nodded. “That’s good, though. We needed someone to lead the way.”

Emiko looked at her and smiled. “I told you I should come along,” she said with a wink.

“Do you feel alright?” Nanako asked. “We can go back if we need to.”

“I feel pretty great, actually,” Emiko answered. “I think I’ll be alright for now.”

“Great, let’s keep moving then, guys.”

Emiko took a deep breath and summoned her persona, a beautiful goddess with long, red hair in a beautiful white dress. The persona rode a white horse ahead of the others, leading the way to Takeyoshi. They ended up finishing 3 floors as originally planned. Emiko felt pretty drained afterwards, but everyone else seemed tired, too.

“How come you’re not completely wasted after getting your persona like the rest of us were?” Miusagi asked.

“Oh. I have no idea. Is that bad?” Emiko asked.

“I think it may be because she had her glasses the whole time. Being in the fog without them is draining for humans,” Teddie mentioned.

“That’s true,” Nanako said. “She’s also really stubborn and tends to get what she wants.” Emiko flashed her a smile before she hit the floor. 

“I guess everyone runs out of energy eventually,” Miusagi commented as he and Teddie picked her up and carried her out of Junes.


	17. Chapter 17

The following day was a Sunday. Teddie was really happy that the others decided to take a day off from fighting, because he had the morning off from his job at Junes. And having Sunday morning off meant it was craft time! He flung open the door to the textile shop and shouted. “This bear is ready to party!”

Kanji rolled his eyes. “Shut up, you stupid bear!” The kids all giggled, and several of them ran up to Teddie for hugs. Teddie had been showing up to Kanji’s kid craft group since he started having them. Nanako-chan had only come once or twice, because he spent lots of time hanging out with senpai back then, so they did crafts together all the time. Miusagi came to craft class faithfully until he was about 10. Teddie had never missed a single one. Kanji walked up to Teddie and placed a hand on his shoulder gently. “Be good, ok?” he asked patiently.

“Ok, Kanji-chan! I promise!” Teddie said happily. Then he went to sit with the kids. He made silly faces and told them funny stories while they made this week’s craft. “Oh, let me help you with that! Did you know that Teddie is actually a certified glitter expert?” he said in a coy voice. The children around him giggled as he helped them apply glitter to their crafts, dumping some on himself in the process.

Kanji was watching this and sighing deeply when Miusagi entered the shop. “What’s he doing?” Miusagi asked.

“Making a freaking mess,” Kanji grunted.

“The kids look pretty into it, though,” Miusagi added. 

Kanji shrugged. “You used to think it was pretty funny, too.”

“Yeah. But mostly because that face you make when he’s driving you crazy is pretty funny.”

Kanji laughed. “That figures.” He looked at Miusagi curiously. “How come you’re here?”

“Mom had a thing,” Miusagi said with a shrug. Sunday was really the only day he saw her for more than a few minutes. Lately she had started making other plans that didn’t include him on Sundays, too. He hated it, but what was he supposed to do about it? He couldn’t make her want to spend time with him.

Kanji nodded. “You want to help out with the kids, or work the counter?”

“Counter,” Miusagi said with relief, glancing at Teddie out of the corner of his eye. Kanji laughed again.

“Fair enough,” he answered, heading into the fray of little kids and glitter while Miusagi took his place behind the shop’s counter.

______________________________________________________________

“Why are you here on Sunday mornings, anyway?” Chie asked Naoto in a grumble. Now that Naoto understood what her little “ailment” was, she apparently felt better and had lots of energy for sparring. Chie hadn’t expected to have her butt kicked at this ungodly hour of the morning. Normally, Sundays were quiet, especially this early.

“It is… craft day,” Naoto said with a guilty look on her face.

“Craft day? What the heck is that?” Chie asked as she dodged another punch.

“Kanji’s craft group. For the children,” Naoto managed to force out. She was feeling breathless and they had barely begun the match. She hadn’t expected physical activity to be so taxing when pregnant.

“Wait… are you telling me you’re _afraid_ of little kids?” Chie taunted, knowing she was pushing all the right buttons. _Sometimes you have to win the match with a little manipulation_ , she thought.

“I… No! No, of course not,” Naoto lied, barely dodging Chie’s high kick. 

“I think that’s totally _adorable_ , Detective Tatsumi. A pregnant detective that’s terrified of preschoolers!” Unfortunately, Chie’s taunting worked too well. Naoto clocked her hard in the side of the face.

“Oh! Chie-san, I apologize! Are you alright?” Naoto asked frantically.

Chie stayed on the floor laughing. “Yes. It was totally worth it to see your face, though. For real, do they scare you that much?”

“No… I mean, sometimes. Not all of them. But a room full of children brandishing gluesticks is fairly unsettling,” Naoto admitted.

“Ok, well… you know you’re going to have to get over that soon, right?” Chie asked, having finally stopped laughing.

“I am only pregnant with one child, Chie-san. It won’t be nearly the same as a large group.”

“Oh? What about the baby’s play dates? And helping out at preschool? All the best moms help with snack time and all that, right?” Chie pointed out.

“I… had not thought of that,” Naoto said, becoming pale. 

“Hey… it’s all good, Naoto. You’ll get the hang of things. And you can always just send Kanji to deal with snack time, right? Here, let’s get you a bottle of water, I think that was enough of a workout for today.” 

“Of course. I suppose there is paperwork waiting for us as well,” Naoto said.

Chie groaned. “R-Right. Of course.” _You’re such an idiot, Satonaka!_ Naoto’s punches hurt, but they were still more fun than stupid paperwork.

______________________________________________________________

Nanako sighed loudly. She was sure Souji had heard it, and she had meant for him to. But he was doing a great job at ignoring it. He turned to her and smiled. She rolled her eyes at him. “Come on, Nanako. You know we need to do this.”

“I know. And I _don’t_ have to like it.”

“No. You don’t,” Souji said quietly as he took her arm and pulled her out of the elevator. It wasn’t a holiday, but they were going to visit Adachi at the prison. And Dojima was unaware they were doing it. Souji had insisted that they go alone, so they could “have words” with him. Before, despite knowing that he had obviously done something wrong, Nanako thought of Tohru Adachi as a friend. Family, even. Like an uncle or something. That crazy uncle that you brought a cabbage to when you visited him in prison on his birthday. Now all she could think of was how he had almost killed her.

She kept silent the rest of the way to the visitation room. Souji wasn’t going to change his mind, and he already knew she was unhappy about it. They pushed open the door to find Adachi sitting at the table with his head down. He stood when they entered the room.

“Souji-kun! Nanako-chan! It’s so good to see you both!” Adachi exclaimed. Souji approached him and gave him one of those one armed guy hugs. Nanako tried not to throw up.

“How have you been?” Souji asked gently as they sat across the table from each other.

“Oh, as well as I can be. I was surprised to hear you kids were coming. I’m so happy to see you both,” he said. His eyes looked slightly teary and his voice was sincere. Nanako looked at the ground. It was hard to hate someone who you considered family.

“Oh, Nanako has a gift for you,” Souji added.

She looked over at him stunned. Then she remembered the stupid cabbage. “Oh, right. This is from the garden. We hope you enjoy it,” she said with a slight curtsey and passed him the cabbage.

Adachi beamed at her as he took it. “Thank you, Nanako-chan! Goodness, you’re even taller than the last time I saw you, already! Is school going well?”

“Y-Yes.” She looked at Souji, who nodded and stood up. She took the chair across from Adachi. Souji stood behind her and placed his hands on the back of her chair. “I know what you did. Why you’re in here, I mean. That what happened to me was because of you.”

Adachi had a shocked look on his face, but he held her gaze. “I see,” he said, eyes watering. He looked down in shame. “I’m sorry,” he said, in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Look at me, please,” Nanako insisted. Adachi did as she asked, tears spilling from his eyes. “I am choosing to forgive you. Not for you, but for me. So… that’s all.”

Adachi’s eyes widened. “Nanako-chan! Th-Thank you!”

Nanako shook her head. “Not for you. Remember that.” Adachi nodded. Souji took a deep breath and sat in the chair beside Nanako.

“We need to ask you some questions,” he said seriously. “People are being thrown in the TV again. We thought you might be able to help us figure some things out.”

Adachi nodded. “I’ll do anything I can to help.”


	18. Chapter 18

Miusagi sat beside Nanako on the roof at lunch the next day. She had asked him to join her, insisting that she just needed to vent and didn’t want the whole team to be dragged down by any of it. While they ate, she told him about her visit with Adachi. “So you spent the day hanging out with the guy who tried to kill you when you were a kid? That sounds rough.”

Nanako nodded. “It was. I brought him a cabbage.”

Miusagi looked at her in his peripheral vision as he ate his ramen. “Why?” he asked curiously.

“He likes it,” Nanako replied flatly. After a moment of silence, they both laughed hysterically.

Miusagi nudged her side with his elbow. “You want to know how _I_ spent my Sunday?” he asked.

“Yes,” Nanako said. “I’m dying to know. How did you spend your Sunday?”

“Watching Teddie pour glitter all over himself and a bunch of little kids, and watching Kanji try not to kill him.”

Nanako giggled. “How did he keep his self control?”

“He figured the kids would tell their parents if he lost it. I think he’s all ready for this dad thing.” They both laughed again. “So how come you asked _me_ to lunch? You could have vented to anyone. Emiko’s your best friend, right?”

Nanako shrugged. “You listen and don’t judge. And Emiko’s too worried about Takeyoshi to think about much else right now, anyway.”

“Oh, right. Cool,” Miusagi said, feeling slightly flustered. “I mean, you’re the same. Non judgemental and all that. So, thanks. Not many people would listen to me this way, either, but I know I can count on you, senpai.”

Nanako rolled her eyes. “Enough with the senpai already.”

Miusagi raised his eyebrows. “Hey, I’m just trying to show some respect.”

“I’ve only ever heard you use honorifics with Sanae and Naoto. I think you’ve decided that calling me senpai bugs me like when you call Kanji ‘mister’. You just think it’s funny.”

Miusagi grinned. “It bugs you, does it senpai?”

“Shut up!” Nanako said, slugging him on the arm. She tried, but she couldn’t keep from laughing.

 

______________________________________________________________

 

After school, they returned to the TV world. It was a long afternoon full of difficult fights. Emiko’s ability to guide them and analyze the enemies helped greatly, but the enemies were tougher than the ones in Sanae’s place had been. They finished floor 6 and decided to stop for the day to heal up and get some rest. “I thought we would make it further,” Emiko said with a frown when they made it back to the food court.

Nanako nodded. “I know. Souji said things tend to escalate, though. It’s just harder here than anywhere we’ve been before.”

Emiko sighed and nodded. “It’s fine. I’m just so worried about Takeyoshi.”

Nanako gave her a quick hug. “Don’t worry, Emi-chan. I promise you we’ll get to him in time.”

Everyone said goodbye and started going their separate ways when Sanae stopped Miusagi. “What have you been doing every night?” she asked. “I’ve come by a few times to see you and no one was there.”

“Oh. Umm, sorry, Sana-chan. Mom hasn’t been home hardly at all, so I’ve been hanging out at Kanji and Naoto’s house a lot.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding a little hurt.

“Something wrong with that?” he asked softly.

“No. I just… You could have called me. We could’ve hung out.”

“Yeah. You’re right. Are you doing anything now?”

“No. Sis has work until late.”

“Want to go hang out by the river for a while?” Miusagi asked.

Sanae smiled gently, searching his hazel eyes. She found nothing but honesty in them, as always. “Sure, let’s go!”

They walked by the river, skipped rocks like they did when they were kids, and talked about nothing until the sun started to go down.

“I’m really glad we did this,” Sanae said. “I’ve missed you terribly, Miusagi.”

Miusagi looked up, surprised. “You have? Really?”

Sanae nodded, and Miusagi’s face lit up. “I’ve missed you, too. I guess things have been really chaotic lately. I figured you needed some space.”

Sanae laughed. “When have you ever given me any space? You’ve been up in my face since we were five-year-olds.”

“Yeah, I know,” Miusagi said, blushing a little. “I just thought, it seemed like you didn’t like that I was being overprotective. So I backed off a little.” He shrugged, trying to look like it wasn’t a big deal.

“I kind of like that you want to protect me,” Sanae said shyly. “So long as you don’t try to do stupid things like prevent me from fighting alongside everyone else,” she added with a frown.

Miusagi sighed. “Yeah. I know.” They sat together in silence for a long moment before he spoke again. “Hey, you want to go get some topsicles? If we hurry we can make it before Shiroku changes over for the night.”

“Sounds great!” Sanae said enthusiastically. They ran as fast as they could to the shopping district, arriving 5 minutes before the Shiroku store closed and the Shiroku pub opened.

“Phew,” Miusagi said, out of breath from running. “I don’t think I could have waited til tomorrow for a topsicle. It’s a good thing we’re fast.” They two teens laughed together, then shared their topsicles outside on a bench. When they were finished, they walked home together, both feeling less alone than they had in weeks.

 

______________________________________________________________

 

Nanako spent her evening with Chie and Yosuke. Souji had to work, so he tasked them with showing her the ropes at buying armor and keeping her team’s weapons upgraded. They took her to Daidara, the store her friend Miwa-chan’s uncle owned. Miwa and her uncle lived above the store. It was really strange for Nanako to be buying weapons from him. Thankfully, Miwa-chan wasn’t in the store when they arrived. _That would have been difficult to explain_ , Nanako thought.

“Hey, Daidara-san!” Chie greeted the shop owner cheerfully. “We have new materials for you!”

Daidara looked at them with mild surprise. “It has been a while. Are you needing some new things?”

“Mmm hmm,” Chie answered. “Nanako-chan here will likely be in quite a bit.”

“Wow!” Yosuke exclaimed. “Look at those knives!”

Chie smacked him hard on the arm. “We’re not here to shop for _you_ , Yosuke!”

“Alright, geeze, calm down. You brought a list, right, Nanako-chan?”

“That’s right.” She handed the paper to Daidara-san.

“Let me see what I have in the back,” he said, walking out with her list in hand.

Nanako let out the breath she’d been holding. “What’s wrong, Nanako-chan?” Yosuke asked.

“Oh, that’s right!” Chie exclaimed. “You’re friends with his niece, right?”

“Yes. This is super weird,” Nanako said quietly.

Chie put her arm around Nanako’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. Daidara-san never asks any questions about what we need this stuff for. I doubt he would say anything.”

A few minutes later, all three of them were loaded up with shopping bags full of armor and various weapons. They walked it all back to Yosuke’s house. “I’ll have Ted help me bring it all to Junes tomorrow before you guys get out of school.”

“Oh, great! Thanks, Yosuke! I don’t know what I would have done without either of you today!”

“Anytime, Nanako-chan!” Chie said brightly.

Nanako walked home, feeling relieved that Miwa-chan hadn’t seen her purchasing weapons. _Enough of my friends are involved already_ , she thought. Keeping so many secrets was starting to feel overwhelming.


	19. Chapter 19

Maika Mishima kneeled in front of the shrine, spreading out the variety of beautiful wildflowers she had picked along the way. They were all vibrant colors. Purples, pinks, teals, yellows. Maika felt cheerful just looking at them. She looked up when something landed before her. “Hello, Mr. Fox!” she greeted the animal happily. “How are you today?”

“Yip yip!” the fox answered.

“You like the flowers, too?” Maika asked. “I think they’re just _beautiful_. I thought they would look perfect here at the shrine.”

“Yip!” the fox agreed.

Maika loved the fox. She felt like she really understood him when they “spoke”. She had been having regular chats with him, as she visited the shrine often. It made her feel happy and complete to spend time there. She remembered when they were little and Nanako told her that the fox had borrowed and returned her umbrella. No one else believed the story, except for Maika. Maika had already been spending time there. Instead of trying to catch bugs with the other children, she would sit by the shrine and share snacks with the fox. The only other person Maika had seen spend time with the fox was Nanako’s cousin, Souji. She wondered if he “spoke” fox, too, or if he just liked animals. Nanako’s house was always surrounded by cats that her cousin was taking care of, so she supposed that either could be true.

Maika heard someone approaching behind her. What were the odds that Nanako would show up right when she was thinking of her? “Nanako-chan!” she shouted, greeting her friend with a happy smile. 

“Hey, Mai-chan! What are you doing here?” Nanako asked as she took in the scene around her. Maika was sitting beside the fox, who was surrounded by a ring of wildflowers.

“Oh, I was just visiting with Mr. Fox! He and I both love the vibrant colors of these flowers I picked today.” She blushed slightly, wondering if that was too weird of a thing to say.

“How do you know he likes them?” Nanako asked curiously.

“Oh, because he told me,” Maika admitted.

Nanako was surprised. “Like… he said ‘I like those flowers, too’?” she asked, feeling very confused.

“No,” Maika said, trying to decide how to explain. “He doesn’t speak Japanese or anything like that, he just yips. But we understand each other perfectly,” she said, beaming.

“Wait, you can understand him? Really?” Nanako asked.

“Yes!” Maika exclaimed. “Is that bad?”

“No, no! It’s just… Souji used to ‘talk’ to him. I don’t think he fully understood him, though, it was more about body language. And I sort of thought he was just messing with me.”

“Yip yip!” the fox exclaimed.

“What… what’s he saying?” Nanako asked.

“He says that your cousin is a good friend of his,” Maika said.

Nanako laughed. “I’m not surprised.” She glanced at her phone and panicked when she saw the time. “Oh, no! We’re going to be late for school if we don’t leave now! Come on, Mai-chan!” Nanako exclaimed.

“Oh, oops! Bye, Mr. Fox!” Maika shouted, waving as Nanako pulled her off towards school.

“Yip!” said the fox in return.

______________________________________________________________

Takeyoshi had no idea where he was, even though it looked just like Yasogami High School. It wasn’t a break, but there were no other students here, and no teachers. Just a double of himself that kept saying things he didn’t want to hear. The same things that had been running through his mind for years. How much Emiko loved him and wanted to be with him, and how chicken he was for not asking her out. And how awful he felt inside at the reasons why. Reasons like the fact that he had been holding out all these years, just in case Nanako showed any interest. Because he liked Nanako as much as he liked Emiko.

So Takeyoshi had spent years being their friend, deflecting as much of Emiko’s attention as possible without hurting her feelings. At times, he almost went for it, but there was still a huge piece of him that wondered how Nanako felt, and kept waiting a little bit longer. He was pretty sure that Nanako liked Teddie, which made sense. He thought Ted was a really fun guy to be around, even if he was pretty strange. But he still wished that Nanako would notice him and return his feelings.  
And now he was stuck in here with himself, listening to all the details of his insecurities, over and over again. How long had it been? Hours? Days? _Weeks?_ It felt like weeks, but he wasn’t sure. The worst part came at the end, when Nanako and Emiko and Teddie - and some kids he didn’t know - burst in and heard everything his double had been saying. Takeyoshi couldn’t hear anything anymore. It was like the world had become silent. All he could see was the hurt look on Emiko’s face. She looked completely crushed, and Nanako look confused and hurt as well. And Ted looked hurt and angry. The looks on their faces were exactly why he had kept this to himself for all these years. He had no idea how he was supposed to fix this.

The double turned into some sort of monster. It was getting harder to see through the fog now, so Takeyoshi wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but he thought the others were fighting it? Awhile later, it came back to him, and he stood and spoke. “I know… you’re a part of me. It’s all a mess right now, but we’ll find a way to fix it,” he said. The double smiled softly, then started to shimmer and fade. Takeyoshi opened his palm as a card appeared inside it. _Justice? Like… my name?_ “Take Minakata,” he said with a frown. Then he hit the floor hard. When he woke the next day, he couldn’t remember how he ended up at home.

______________________________________________________________

“I… I don’t know what to do,” Teddie said sadly. He was sitting on the floor of Yosuke’s closet, a.k.a. his bedroom.

“About what?” Yosuke asked.

“About Yoshi-kun liking Nana-chan!” Teddie wailed.

“Why do you have to do anything? I mean… people feel what they feel. You can’t really fault him for crushing on Nanako-chan, can you?”

“N-No, but… I don’t like this feeling, Yosuke. I _like_ Yoshi-kun, he’s my friend! But I don’t like him wanting Nana-chan! It feels… bad.”

“Nanako-chan doesn’t like him that way, right?” Yosuke asked.

“No, she said she loves _Teddie_! So I don’t think she likes Yoshi-kun that way at all.”

“Hold on a second, she told you _she loves you_?!” Yosuke asked in disbelief. “When were you going to tell me _that_?”

Teddie blushed and looked away. “Some things are personal, Yosuke.”

Yosuke burst into laughter. “Did you tell her, then? That you _looooove_ her?”

“Hmph. Of course I did!” Teddie said, feeling irritated. “Nana-chan and I are girlfriend and _bear_ friend now.”

Yosuke sighed in exasperation at the neverending bear puns. “Then I’m pretty sure you don’t need to do anything about Takeyoshi-kun.”

“I can still be friends with him?” Teddie asked.

“Of course you can.”

“And I don’t have to stay mad at him forever?”

“No, Ted. You can stop being mad whenever you want to.”

“Alright… Thanks, Yosuke.”

Teddie flung himself onto Yosuke in a huge bear hug. “Alright, I get it, now get off of me!”


	20. Chapter 20

Two mornings later, after sleeping more than he thought possible, Takeyoshi Aragaki took a deep breath and knocked on Emiko’s door. She frowned deeply when she opened it. “I thought that we should talk,” Takeyoshi said calmly. Emiko rolled her light brown eyes at him, pushing her wispy bangs out of her face.

“I’m pretty sure your shadow said it all, so we don’t really need to do this, do we?” Emiko said, sounding more irritated than Takeyoshi expected. 

“That’s the thing, though, he really didn’t. He only said all the bad stuff.” Takeyoshi took another deep breath. “I like you, Emi-chan. I like you like crazy and I always have. I like how open you are with your feelings, how nice you are to pretty much everyone, how much you always get me without me having to explain.”

“Evidently I didn’t catch the part where you like my best friend and weren’t man enough to tell me,” Emiko said in an emotionless whisper.

“It - that doesn’t even matter!” he shouted, changing course when he saw how angry she looked. “Look, I felt something for Nanako-chan, sure. The three of us have always been really close. But the things I felt for her were different. They were just enough to be really confusing, so I hesitated with you. I shouldn’t have. Because it’s always been you, Emi-chan. _Always_.”

Emiko sighed. “I want to believe that. But I think it’s going to take some time for me to trust you completely again. Ok?”

Takeyoshi flashed her a huge grin. “Yeah. That’s more than ok. I just… can’t lose you, alright?” He said the last part so softly that it made her shiver. She nodded in reply, unable to say anything back. “So… would it be alright if we went and got a soda together or something? Just as friends… for now…”

Emiko smiled gently. “Yes, that would be alright.” She wanted to refuse when he took her hand as they walked, but she didn’t have it in her. Even if how they got to this point hurt, this is what she’d been wanting all along.

______________________________________________________________

Nanako woke on Sunday morning from yet another dream of the Velvet Room. The dreams were always foggy once she woke, but she remembered Margaret handing her an ornate key and telling her to make sure she visited soon. She leaped out of bed and gasped as she saw the key sitting on her nightstand. _How did she do that? That place is super weird_. She quickly got dressed, grabbed breakfast and headed out the door. She wasn’t sure where she was supposed to go, until she saw a shimmering blue butterfly in front of her. It seemed to be guiding the way. Ten minutes later, Nanako found herself in the shopping district, facing a translucent blue door. _Has this… always been here?_ She had never seen it before. Nanako took a deep breath, placed the key inside the lock and turned it slowly. The door opened, and she stepped inside meekly. Her eyes widened as she took in the impossibly blue sky over a meadow full of blue flowers. The sunlight made the flowers seem to shimmer as the gentle breeze made them sway. In the middle of the meadow was an ornate couch. On one end sat the long nosed man, Igor, and Margaret sat at the other end with a large book in her lap.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room,” Igor said with enthusiasm. “Come, take a seat.” He gestured to the open space before him, and a blue armchair manifested before Nanako’s eyes. She shook her head in disbelief as she sat in the chair.

“Why… how are we outside if we’re in the Velvet Room?” Nanako asked.

Margaret smiled but said nothing. Igor said, “The room changes due to the content of a guest’s heart. Your heart in particular is rather lovely.”

“Oh… th-thank you,” Nanako said, blushing slightly.

“Now then, “ Igor said, “we have some things to tell you.”

______________________________________________________________

It felt like she was there for hours, but when Nanako left the Velvet Room, only a few minutes had passed. _I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this stuff_ , she thought. She passed by the Shiroku Store, and felt relieved when she saw Emiko and Takeyoshi sitting on a bench together, talking and smiling. She smiled and waved as she continued on towards the Textile Shop. She figured Miusagi might be working, as he had mentioned being there on Sundays before. She had completely forgotten what else happened there on Sunday mornings, and stopped in her tracks when she opened the door to the sight of Teddie standing on the craft table, pouring a bucket of glitter on himself while the children laughed. “Who wants to sparkle?!” Teddie shouted happily. Kanji yanked him off the table, taking him to the corner to have words with him about his behavior. The kids were still giggling.

Miusagi walked up beside Nanako, whose mouth was still hanging open. “He’s something else, huh?”

“I… don’t even have words for this,” Nanako replied.

Kanji pulled Teddie towards the front of the store and pushed him towards Nanako. “Take him. Please, I beg you.”

Nanako nodded, grabbing Teddie’s arm and pulling him outside. “Nana-chan! I’m so happy that you’re here!” Teddie exclaimed cheerfully. 

“What on earth were you doing in there?” she asked.

“It’s craft day, Nana-chan,” Teddie answered, looking confused. 

“You can’t make a mess in there like that. It’s going to take Kanji hours to clean that up.”

“O-Oh. I hadn’t thought of that,” Teddie said, looking ashamed. “Oh, I know! I should go and help clean up!”

Nanako grabbed his arm. “No, Teddie. Not today. Let’s get going. You can help next time.” 

They had lunch together at Junes before Teddie’s afternoon shift. “I’ll miss you, Nana-chan! Text me when you’re heating up your dinner!”

Nanako laughed. “I’ll do that.”

______________________________________________________________

Nanako decided to stop by the shrine before going home. She was surprised to find Maika again sitting there talking to the fox. “Oh, Nanako-chan!” Maika said cheerfully. “Do you want to sit and chat with us for awhile?”

Nanako looked at the fox and giggled. “I would like that. Hello, Mr. Fox.”

“Yip!” replied the fox.

“I saw this really pretty meadow full of flowers that you would have loved, Maika. Oh, in a dream, I mean.”

“Really, Nanako-chan? What colors were the flowers?”

“All the same. The flowers and the sky were both impossibly blue, in different shades.”

“Ooohh, that sounds beautiful! Don’t you agree, Mr. Fox?”

“Yip yip!”

Maika laughed, shaking out her wavy, caramel-colored hair. Nanako couldn’t help but smile at her friend. “You two get along really well, don’t you?”

“Yip!”

“Yes! We certainly do,” Maika said, smiling back. 

The fox got up, walked in front of Nanako and sat. It was as if he was trying to get her attention. “Yip yip!”

“He says that he can help you,” Maika said.

“What?” Nanako asked. “Help me with what?”

“Yip!”

“He says… he used to help your cousin… inside the TV?” Maika translated. 

Nanako gasped. Maika stared at her. The fox yipped. “I… may take you up on that Mr. Fox.”

“What’s going on, Nanako-chan?” Maika asked. “None of that made any sense to me.”

Nanako sighed. If she was going to work with the fox, she was going to need a translator. “I have a really long story to tell you. Want to go have a snack at Aiya? We can sit in the back and I’ll fill you in.”

“Ok, Nanako-chan! That sounds delightful! See you later, Mr. Fox!” The two girls headed to the restaurant. _And I was trying so hard to not get anymore of my friends involved_ , Nanako thought.


	21. Chapter 21

“So.. there’s another whole world inside the TV, and Teddie was born there, and you have special powers. Oh, and Mr. Fox has healing abilities,” Maika said, summing up the conversation. 

“Yes,” Nanako said, feeling embarrassed. “Look, I know it all sounds crazy -”

“Actually, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it,” Maika replied.

“Wait, what? Really, you think it does?”

“Yes!” Maika said cheerfully. “Teddie has always been very different, so that explains that part. And you’ve always been really connected to him, so it makes sense you would be the one to get these powers. Oh, and Mr. Fox has always spent a lot of time with your cousin, plus the things he said just now about the TV…”

“Hmm,” Nanako murmured. “I guess when you put it that way, it could be weirder, right?”

Maika giggled. “Absolutely!” 

“I guess my next question is, will you help me?” Nanako asked softly.

“Oh, Nanako-chan, I would do anything for you, but I’m not sure how I would be able to help. I don’t even have one of those persona things,” Maika said thoughtfully.

“None of us had them until we went inside the TV, Mai-chan. And, well, I had a really special job in mind for you, anyway.”

“Really? What’s that, Nanako-chan?”

“I need… a fox translator,” Nanako said with a blush.

“Ohhhhh,” Maika said, as the meaning dawned on her. “If Mr. Fox is going to help you, you need to be able to talk to him.”

“Exactly,” Nanako said with a smile.

“I wonder why your cousin can talk to him, but you can’t?” Maika said, thinking out loud.

Nanako let out a long breath. “I have no idea. Maybe… it’s probably related to the cat thing, you know?”

Maika giggled again. “That makes sense. He definitely has a way with kitty cats! Foxes aren’t all that different, right?”

“I have no idea,” Nanako admitted honestly. “So what do you think? Will you be my fox translator?”

“I would love to!” Maika replied. “Oooh, this is really exciting!

______________________________________________________________

Kiyotaka Shijima stopped in his tracks when he approached the Samegawa riverbank to find two of his classmates laughing and splashing in the water. He rolled his eyes. _It just had to be those two, didn’t it?!_ Miusagi Mochizuki had to be just about Kiyotaka’s least favorite person, and he always had been. When they were kids, both boys had taken a liking to the same girl… the one clinging to Miusagi’s arm at this very moment, Sanae Komaki. She was even prettier now than she had been then, her straight black hair falling just past her shoulders, and her dark brown eyes shining as she looked at _him_. _Ugh_ , Kiyotaka thought. He didn’t even like Sanae that way anymore, not really. It just still made him angry that she completely chose Miusagi over him, time and time again. He gave them one good glare with his light blue eyes before turning around and heading back the way he had come.

Unfortunately, turning around revealed that his little shadow had been following him again. _God, she’s so annoying!_ Yoko Mori was one of the most beautiful second years at school, with her long, brown hair streaked with blonde, and those warm brown eyes. She was petite and slender, yet curvy in all the right places. The problem was, Kiyotaka just wasn’t into her, and she wouldn’t leave him alone. “Why are you following me again?” he asked, running a frustrated hand through his light brown hair.

Yoko’s face lit up in a sly smile. “I saw you heading down this way, and thought we could spend some time together by the river,” she said with a flirtatious wink.

Kiyotaka sighed. “I told you, that’s not going to happen. Stop following me.” He walked off towards the shopping district, feeling more annoyed than ever when he heard her call out to him.

“Maybe another time then!” she said, much to his horror. 

He kept moving as quickly as he could. He felt like he couldn’t even breathe as he tried to block out the annoyance of Yoko and the pangs of jealousy he felt seeing Sanae and Miusagi enjoying each other’s company. After a few minutes, the anxiety had churned up so high that he barely knew where his feet were taking him. He rounded a corner and slammed right into another person, knocking them both to the ground. When the haze left his vision, he found himself staring into the most beautiful violet-brown eyes he had ever seen. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” asked the girl. 

“F-Fine,” Kiyotaka stuttered. “How about you? I’m sorry I knocked you over,” he said softly.

“Oh, don’t worry!” the girl said cheerfully as she shook out her wavy, caramel-colored hair. She reached down and began gathering up the wildflowers at their feet. She must have been carrying them when he ran into her. 

“Let me help,” he said quietly as he picked up a bright pink daisy and held it out to her. When she looked at him, he couldn’t help but smile. The happy smile she gave him in return melted his insides. 

“Thank you! Oh, I’m Maika, by the way!”

“Kiyotaka. And it’s no problem.” He handed her the bundle of flowers he’d picked up off the ground. “Were you in a hurry? We must have both been moving pretty fast to knock each other over like that,” he said with a slight frown.

“Oh! I was just taking some more flowers to the… shrine. I guess I should probably finish my errand, it was lovely to meet you, Taka-kun!”

Kiyotaka watched her walk away. He wondered why his head was suddenly so clear, even though his heart was still pounding.

______________________________________________________________

Nanako expected her usual routine of heating up leftovers when she got home. To her surprise, Souji and Rise were waiting for her. “You guys know I have school tomorrow, right?” she asked with suspicion.

Rise giggled. “Of course, silly! We aren’t going to keep you up all night again.”

“We brought home sushi. Figured you could use a break,” Souji said, nudging her towards the table. 

The three of them enjoyed the meal, talking and laughing over things that had happened in all of their lives that week. Finally, Nanako mustered up the courage to ask a question.

“When you were the guest, what did the Velvet Room look like?”

“Uhh… a limo, actually,” Souji replied. “Wait, is it not a limo for you? I was just there and it looked exactly the same.”

“It was a limo when I went there in my dreams, but this morning when I actually opened it with the key, it was completely different.”

“Oooh, what did it look like, Nanako-chan?” Rise asked curiously. 

“It was a meadow full of blue flowers, and when he invited me to sit, Igor made an armchair appear out of thin air.”

Souji rolled his eyes. “Show off,” he mumbled. “But wait, why was it different for you to begin with?”

“He said the room reflected the contents of the guest’s heart, whatever that means,” Nanako answered.

Rise frowned. “That’s odd. I mean, I get why Nanako-chan’s would be a beautiful meadow, but why would the inside of your heart be a limousine?”

Souji shrugged. “No idea. Maybe they knew I was going to have to haul your shopping bags back from Okina all the time and figured a really big car would be come in handy.”

Rise smacked his arm. “Oh, stop it!”

Nanako laughed. “You two were right. A break is exactly what I needed.”


	22. Chapter 22

The next morning, Kiyotaka opened his door to leave for school. Sitting in front of his steps was a fox. He stopped in his tracks. “Umm, hello there. Something I can help you with?” he said uneasily. 

“Yip!” said the fox.

“Hmm, alright. So you do want my help with something, then?” he asked, crouching in front of the wild animal. The fox dropped something that he’d been carrying in his mouth. A hot pink daisy.

“Yip yip!” said the fox. It began running, stopping to look back over its shoulder.

“I should follow you then? Is Maika alright?”

“Yip!” said the fox, and he started running again. Kiyotaka started running after him, surprised when he ended up in the Junes food court. The fox stopped right in front of a group of kids, turned towards Kiyotaka and sat, dropping the flower again. The others looked as stunned as he felt. When Kiyotaka took a good look at their faces, he felt anxious. _It just had to be them, didn’t it?_ Sanae Komaki was staring at him, eyes wide, and Miusagi Mochizuki was glaring at him. He shifted his own gaze towards the brunette girl at the front of the group. 

“Do you know Maika?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Nanako replied.

“I think something may have happened to her.”

______________________________________________________________

The group had met up for a short strategy meeting before walking to school together. Nanako had just finished explaining about Maika’s ability to talk to the fox, and the fox’s ability to help them, when Mr. Fox and a boy she had never seen before stumbled right into their midst. When the boy asked if she knew Maika, Nanako’s eyes went to the flower that the fox had dropped. _Oh, you have got to me kidding me!_ she thought. There wasn’t time to explain without all of them being very late for class, so Nanako promised the boy that she would explain after school, and they all agreed to meet back in the same place.

That was why Kiyotaka Shijima was sitting next to a strange blonde boy named Teddie in the middle of the food court. Teddie kept offering to get him weird combinations of snacks, and Kiyotaka kept declining. Nanako was late. A couple of her other friends, the blonde girl and what had to be her boyfriend were sitting on the other side of the table from him. Sanae and a frowning Miusagi were sitting on the table next to them.

“I hate that guy,” Miusagi muttered quietly to Sanae. “What could he of all people possibly have to do with any of this?”

Sanae patted his arm. “We wondered that about all of us, too. And you don’t hate him.”

“I do. I really, _really_ do,” Miusagi answered while glaring at Kiyotaka.

“You’re being silly, I’m going to go talk to him.”

“What?!” Miusagi exclaimed.

“He’s our friend, Miusagi, or at least he used to be. And he looks like he can use a friend right now.” She walked over to the table and sat, saving him from Teddie. “Hello, Taka-kun. Are you doing alright?”

“Y-Yes. I mean, no, not really, but thanks for asking.”

“Rough morning, huh?” Takeyoshi asked sympathetically.

Kiyotaka nodded. “I guess that’s one way to put it.”

Nanako finally appeared just then. “It’s about to get even weirder, I guess. Are you sure you want to hear this? It’s complicated, dangerous and just plain odd. If that’s not ok with you, then you should probably consider bringing this to our attention your contribution, and let us handle the rest.”

“N-No, I… I need to see this through. She needs help and, and this fox came to _my_ door. That probably means something, right?”

Nanako let out a long breath before speaking quietly. “Right. I guess we should get started.”

______________________________________________________________

Kiyotaka’s head was spinning by the time he went home that night. Nanako and Teddie had insisted on walking him home, and he was glad for it.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” Nanako said. “It has been for all of us. The good news is, since we found out about Maika so quickly, we can do something about it even faster.”

“Right,” Kiyotaka replied. Evidently, Teddie was born inside the TV world, and could sense that Maika was inside when he popped his head in. Whatever all of that meant.

“Don’t worry, Taka-kun! We’ll save her in no time!” Teddie said cheerfully.

Kiyotaka laughed. Then he turned to Nanako, more serious than ever. “I want to help. I... need to. Please let me be involved in this?”

“We’ll meet after school tomorrow. Same place. You can come in with us if you promise to stay close. The rest of us are capable of fighting, but you’re not. At least, not yet,” Nanako said with a small smile. No one she’d taken into the TV hadn’t come out with a persona yet. If the fox himself had recruited this boy, there must be something special about him.

“That’s fine. I don’t have any problem following orders,” he said, smiling slightly. It didn’t quite reach his light blue eyes. 

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Teddie shouted suddenly. “These are for you! Make sure you wear them in the TV tomorrow!” He handed Kiyotaka a pair of orange glasses, and then the two of them walked away without an explanation.

______________________________________________________________

Nanako cornered Miusagi on the walk to school the next morning. “So what’s the deal with you and Kiyotaka?” she asked.

Miusagi did all he could to not look at her. “It’s nothing.”

“ _Miusagi_. I need to know what’s up. Because if it’s going to be a problem for you, and he wants to help, how am I supposed work around it if I don’t know what the deal is?”

“I won’t be a problem. I swear,” he said, finally looking her in the eyes.

“Spill it,” Nanako said quietly.

“We just don’t get along, ok? A long time ago, he had a thing for Sana-chan, and -”

“A long time ago when?”

“When we all first met.”

“Which was when?” Nanako asked again.

“When we were about five,” Miusagi finally admitted.

“So he tried to take your girlfriend. When you were five?” Nanako summed it up.

“Well when you put it that way, it sounds stupid,” Miusagi muttered. “It wasn’t really just that. He went out of his way to be mean to me, to make me look bad in front of her. I don’t think he’s ever put it behind him, so if we’re all working together…”

“You’re worried she’ll like him better,” Nanako said softly.

Miusagi squeezed his eyes shut. “She’s one of the only friends I’ve ever had. I don’t know what I’d do if she walked away from me right now.”

Nanako patted his arm. “I think it’s pretty clear from how she is around you that she isn’t going anywhere. Can you please try to put it aside for the team? At least for right now, when Maika needs his help.”

“You think he’s really crucial to the mission? Why would that be?”

“I don’t know. But the fox knows I’m her friend, he knows my cousin, and he went to Kiyotaka’s house instead of mine. I think this is important.”

Miusagi sighed. “Alright, senpai. I’ll be good.”

“Thanks, Miusagi. And stop calling me senpai already!”


	23. Chapter 23

Everywhere Maika turned, she saw foxes. And she also kept seeing herself. A weird, yellow-eyed version of herself who wasn’t very nice. Until she rounded a corner and ran smack into Miwa Daidara. “Miwa-chan?” she asked shyly. She felt very uncomfortable in this place, whatever it was. “Is it… really you?”

“Mai-chan? Yes, it’s really me, why wouldn’t it be?”

“T-There’s… another me here,” she admitted. “A not very nice me.”

“Ok, that’s… strange. But so is everything about this,” Miwa said.

“What do you mean?” Maika asked. 

Miwa shook her head. “I saw someone grab you.. A man, I think. So I followed him and he threw you in the back of a truck. You fell into… a television.”

“Oh, no! Really?” Maika asked. Miwa eyed her suspiciously. She didn’t seem to find that odd enough.

“Yes. And then I, well, jumped in after you. I guess. I don’t really get what happened.”

“Oh, this is bad. Nanako-chan isn’t going to be happy when she finds out.”

“Why is that?” Miwa asked.

The two began to walk through the winding hallways of the TV World, while Maika caught her up on the things Nanako had told her.

“Wait, so… if you have to have one of these persona things to enter the TV, why was I able to enter?” Miwa asked. 

“I… really don’t know,” Maika answered. “None of this makes much sense to me.”

When they rounded the next corner, they came face to face with a black blob. As soon as it saw them, it changed into a monster and attacked. 

“Persona!” Miwa shouted out confidently. A glowing, blue card flickered into her hand, and a beautiful goddess appeared behind her. “Wakhirume, kougaon!” A huge blast of light hit the monster and it fell to the ground and faded away. Maika stared at her friend.

“H-How did you?”

“I have no idea! Do you think that’s the thing Nanako-chan told you about?”

“It seems like it. But, she said most people had to fight their shadow to get one. How do you have one already?”

______________________________________________________________

As Nanako and the others entered Maika’s part of the TV World, they noticed that it was less foggy here than the rest had been so far. “That’s strange, isn’t it?” Nanako asked, turning to Teddie.

“Yes.. although I’m really not too sure why the fog is back to begin with. Sensei and us defeated Izanami, and the fog all went away. Even this much is more than _should_ be here,” Teddie answered.

“Right, that’s what Souji said, too. Do you think there’s a way for her to come back?”

“Well, she did say that if humans desired it, she would bring the fog back one day, but I kinda thought she was talking about a long time from now,” said the bear.

“That’s all really interesting,” Miusagi said, “but I think we’re about to have a problem.” He pointed ahead, where the winding hallways of Maika’s place turned into the riverbank. Miusagi shuddered, remembering his own shadow. Up ahead, a boy with light brown hair sat, looking at the water with a frown.

“Taka-kun,” Sanae said, putting a hand on Kiyotaka’s arm. The whole group stopped walking. Kiyotaka was quiet for a moment before he spoke up.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said softly. When the others began to protest, he turned and looked at both Sanae and Miusagi. “We all know what my baggage is about already. Let’s just get this part over with so we can find Maika-chan.”

Miusagi recognized the quiet desperation in his eyes. “Right. We’ve got your back.” Kiyotaka held his gaze for a moment, then nodded. He turned and walked toward his shadow.

The shadow turned its dead, pale yellow eyes on him. “You shouldn’t have come here,” it said.

“I had to. A friend of mine is here.”

“You don’t have any friends.”

Kiyotaka let out a soft breath. “I do. And she needs my help.”

The shadow laughed dryly. “No one needs you, Taka-kun. You lost all the friends you had a long time ago.”

Kiyotaka swallowed the lump in his throat. “That was true. But I made a new one.”

The shadow looked deep into his eyes. “Everyone hates you,” it said in a low voice.

“That’s not true,” Miusagi said confidently, standing beside Kiyotaka and putting a hand on his shoulder. Kiyotaka’s eyes went wide as he looked at his former friend. 

The shadow laughed, nearly in hysterics. “Oh, please, Mochizuki. No one hates me as much as you do.”

Kiyotaka frowned. “I thought we were talking about me, here.”

“We are. We’re talking about you, and about me. Because I am you, and you are me.” This time the shadow’s hearty laugh sounded pleased. 

“Right,” Kiyotaka said shakily. “Y-You’re me. I definitely felt that way. Believed it for a long time, too. A-And I did, I pushed them away. But they’re here with us now. We’re not alone anymore.”

The shadow walked up to him and stared, taking in Kiyotaka with Miusagi still beside him looking fierce and protective. Then a small smile played at his lips, and he nodded, beginning to fade out. Kiyotaka gasped as a blue card appeared in his hand. “The Emperor?” he said softly. “Fujin.” 

Miusagi let go of his shoulder and let out the breath he’d been holding. “Did we really just get away without fighting one?” he asked, turning towards Nanako.

“It looks like it,” she said softly. “You’re a very strong person, Kiyotaka, to be able to accept your shadow like that.”

“Like I said, we already knew what it was about. Can we go find Maika now?” Just then, a small fox tore around the corner and stopped at his feet, dropping another pink flower. Kiyotaka picked it up. “There’s a note attached,” he told the others.

“What does it say?” asked Nanako.

“It says ‘help me’.”

______________________________________________________________

When the team reached the fourth floor, Teddie stopped them before they reached the staircase. “Nana-chan, I’m sensing another persona user on the floor above this!” Teddie said.

Emiko paused, and used Rhiannon to scan the area. “He’s right! There’s someone casting spells on the 5th floor! And there’s what has to be another shadow!”

“Are you sure?” Nanako asked.

“Yes! It feels just like the others.”

“It has to be Maika,” Kiyotaka said, shoving open the door to the stairs. The team all ran up as fast as they could. 

“Head left!” Emiko directed. They ended up in a large room. 

“Is that… Miwa-chan?” Nanako asked

Miwa Daidara stood before Maika’s shadow, casting powerful light spells. Maika cowered on the floor behind her, surrounded by foxes that seemed to be protecting her from harm. Miwa glanced at the group. “A little help here?”

The others surrounded the shadow, and began to fight alongside her. Miwa didn’t have an actual weapon, and neither did Kiyotaka. She kept casting light, and when he tried to mimic her movements, a gust of wind shot out towards the shadow. 

When the fight was over, he crouched down in front of Maika. “Kiyotaka?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“You sent for me,” he said gently. 

“I did? Oh, you’re hurt!” she exclaimed. She touched his arm, and a golden glow that felt like a warm, sunny day washed over him. 

“H-How did you do that?” he asked.

She shook her head, then stood, walking towards her shadow. “I understand how you - how we feel. People think we aren’t very smart, that we’re just sweet and ditsy. But it isn’t true, and if we just keep showing people who we really are, we can make them understand.” The shadow flickered away, and a card landed in Maika’s hand. “Inari. The.. High Priestess?” Drained of energy, she started to fall. Kiyotaka quickly caught her and kept her upright. 

“Come on,” Takeyoshi said. “Let’s get her out of here.”

Before long, they ended up back in the Junes food court. “I’ll get her home,” Nanako said to Kiyotaka.

“No, I… I’m coming with you. She needs help walking.”

Nanako held his gaze for a moment. “Alright, then. You and Teddie are coming with us. The rest of you can walk Miwa-chan home.” She turned to Miwa. “We should talk tomorrow. Can you meet us back here after school?”

“Sure. Maika tried to fill me in, but there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense.” Nanako nodded, and the two groups split up for the night.


End file.
